Disaster's Backfire
by CaptainS10
Summary: Sequel to UD. Holly has spent over a month out of school recovering from the same mission that put Artemis on the run. She's barely returned when her involvement somehow leaks to his enemies. He must protect her, fend them off, and somehow pay his father's ransom at the same time. Can he do it? Or will it just be one big disaster?
1. Chapter 1

**So... I'd intended to post this at Christmas, got distracted with the accident story and some other things and never got that far. But here it is now! Happy New Year everyone!**

1.

"You don't have to do this, you know."

Holly snapped back to reality, tearing her gaze from the police academy outside her window and back to her father in the driver's seat. He was looking at her with concern. "I know," she told him quietly. "But I want to." I think, she added in her head.

Christopher sighed. "If you insist. But you've missed a lot. There's only so much you can keep up with online."

"I just have to get back into the physical routine. Give me a week or two to get back into the swing of things and I'll be able to make up all my physical exams easily." She got out, carrying her almost-too-big-to-carry pup in her arms. Her father followed.

"You think living off campus with all the extra time you have to put in is a good idea?"

"I don't have much of a choice. It's halfway through the year and I couldn't keep Casper in there even if there was space available." They were headed towards an apartment building nearby. Her side twinged occasionally, but she didn't pay much attention to it anymore.

"You could have left him at home." Her father opened the door, gesturing her in.

Holly walked in and looked through the listings to find what floor she was on. "When you hate him? No thanks."

"I don't hate him," he protested, walking over and hitting the elevator button. Holly found the floor listing and went in with him.

"You don't like him. Besides, I'd miss him too much." She scratched between Casper's ears, and he licked her chin.

"Fine. Whatever you'd like." He sighed, and Holly flinched slightly, as she did every time someone managed to say anything that reminded her of the month she'd spent with a certain criminal. No one ever meant to, and no one ever noticed, but that didn't mean it didn't sting.

She'd been home - and out of school - for over a month after what happened. She was healed up well, fully capable of going back - she'd just hesitated for a while. After her experience with last month, she questioned whether she was actually cut out for this. But she had spent her whole life preparing to do this, and she had decided to go on with it after all. If she didn't, she wasn't sure what she would do with herself.

Besides, she could hardly blame herself for how things had went down. She was lacking in experience at that point, and hadn't even finished school, and she had had next to no help at all. She was actually set up to fail, if she was being honest with herself.

Her new apartment was small, built for utility and not comfort, but she liked it that way. Spacious wasn't really her style. She didn't have much to put in it anyway.

She set Casper down to let him explore and took one of the bags from her dad, walking around. She'd only been inside here once before, with the manager of the building, to make a final decision and get her key. The kitchen area and the living space were all one room; the only other two spaces were the bedroom and bathroom on opposite sides. She took her bags in the bedroom and dropped them off, then went back out into the living area.

They stood there for a moment, looking around. Chris, who wasn't here before and was seeing it for the first time, was walking around, checking things out. He met her back in the kitchen/living space.

"It looks good and safe." He shrugged. "Are you okay if I leave now? I'm late enough as is."

Holly nodded, giving him a hug and sighing. "I'm going to change and head over, so my phone will be off. I'll call you tonight though."

Chris flashed her an okay sign and headed out. Holly sighed, looking around again before heading in her room to change.

It was strange, being on her own again. It felt like she hadn't been in so long. But it was a good feeling. It felt like a fresh start, in a way, even though she was simply coming back to the same place she'd started.

She changed into training clothes and pulled her hair up, then headed out. She wasn't set to start again officially until the beginning of the second semester, which was still a few weeks out. But she knew she needed to get back in shape before that time, back into routine, and she needed to make up all her physical tests before she could be back with everyone else, so she had some work to do before that time came.

It was the middle of the day, and class was in session, so she was the only one in her unit's training room when she entered. She looked around, taking in the familiar sight, smell, and feeling. She took a deep breath, walking up to the case on the wall and opening it.

The first thing that struck her was the sight of the wooden staffs in the back of the cabinet. She stared at them for a long moment, biting her lip, struggling to force down her memories. She took a deep breath again, steadying herself, then snatched the smallest one and slammed the cabinet shut.

She weighed it in her hand, fighting down the familiar feeling, the emotions threatening to rise in her chest. She twirled it between her hands, then turned on a dummy, starting to thrash it. Her side twinged occasionally, but she didn't stop, banging the staff off the dummy, dancing around it and hitting it again and again.

Finally she had to stop and take a breather. As soon as she stopped moving, she hit the ground, clutching the staff and gasping for air.

"Alright there, Short?"

Holly looked up, blinking the sweat from her eyes. Julius stood in the doorway. She pulled herself to her feet painfully, using the staff as leverage. "Yes, sir."

"I knew you were coming back, but I didn't expect you to be back so soon. You know there's still three weeks until the new semester starts, right?"

"I need to get back into the routine of things, and I want to be able to deal with any weakness from my side before it puts me behind." Holly leaned against the staff, wincing slightly at another twinge.

"Battle wounds aren't a weakness, Holly." Root crossed his arms, leaning against the wall by the door. "And you definitely aren't weak."

"I wouldn't exactly call that a battle wound, Commander." She straightened completely, hefting the staff again. "What are you doing here anyway?"

He watched her. "Drilling classes. Guest speaking. The norm." He nodded at the staff. "Where did you learn to use that?"

Holly pressed her lips together. "You don't want me to answer that."

"If I didn't I wouldn't have asked." He met her eyes.

She bit the inside of her jaw, holding his eyes for a long minute before turning away. "Why do I get the feeling you already know the answer?"

"Because I do. I just wanted you to admit it." He paused. "What you learned with them isn't a crime, Short. I expected you to learn things; some good, some bad. It's unavoidable, and it's also incredibly valuable."

Holly nodded. She'd heard this lecture before, although she'd never actually been on a field mission before at the time. She walked over to put the staff away, but stopped dead in her tracks when he spoke again.

"I just hope you learned something from being involved with Fowl," he continued when she turned away.

She whirled around, almost dropping the staff. "Excuse me?"

"I didn't get where I am by being an idiot, Short." Root quirked an eyebrow at her. "I realize there was more going on than with that whole situation than what meets the eye. The only one who refuses to see it is Chris, and even he sees the signs; he's just in denial. " He frowned slightly. "And while I don't know what he told you, it's obvious that whatever it was wasn't enough to keep him from hurting you."

"He did what he had to," Holly snapped, thrusting the staff back in the case and closing it. If this conversation went on any longer, she might just be tempted to use it. "And he told me a lot more than any of you were ever willing to."

"It's not me you have to convince of that, Holly." The tender undercurrent in his gruff voice irritated her more than anything else. She huffed.

"So what? I did what you wanted me to do, didn't I? Why are we having this conversation now?"

Root shrugged. "Because it needed to happen at some point, and now was the best opportunity. And because we both know that he will be back, and I need to know if you're prepared for that."

Holly gritted her teeth, not saying anything for a moment. Was she prepared to face him? She wanted to see him, and she didn't, at the same time. She really wasn't prepared to go against him, but she wasn't going to help him go against the LEP, either. "If this is your thinly veiled way of asking me where my loyalties lie, I have no answer for you."

"I don't expect you to now. But I want you to consider it. That's why we're having this conversation." Root met her eyes. "Because when he comes back, he's going to want you. And we're going to need you. One way or another, you're going to have to figure it out."

Holly looked away, unable to hold his eyes. "I don't know, Commander. Honestly. I… well, you know I had a thing with him. And you don't spend over a month with a group of people and live and learn with them and not bond some. I couldn't, at least." She bit her lip. "I don't want them to get hurt, I admit. But I would never let them hurt any of you either."

Root nodded, his face unreadable. "Just think about it, Short." He sighed. "I'll let you get back to training. Just do me a favor."

"What?"

He smirked at her. "Try to find someone else to occupy yourself with, okay? As choices go, a criminal in your house and your line of work is about the worst one you could make. Trust me." He left before she could think of a response to that.

Holly clenched her jaw, glaring after him, then grabbed a different weapon and went back to training.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Days past. Holly trained ferociously every free minute she could. The semester was three weeks away, but she had to get into good enough shape to pass all her physical exams by then in order to be able to start on time.

So she trained and trained, sharpening her skills with every weapon available to her that she could possibly be tested over. She ran around the track for hours, rebuilding her endurance.

The last week before the end of the semester came, and she had to report in to finally take all the physical exams she'd missed. She had two per day the whole week. It was exhausting stuff, but she passed everything. What she couldn't quite understand was why all of her instructors and the commander showed up to every test. So she'd been on a mission. Why did that suddenly make her so interesting?

Eventually she realized it had less to do with the fact she'd been on a mission and more to do with what the mission had to do with. Fowl was still a hot-button topic, especially with what little details had been released about what happened in Paris and his disappearance. Everyone knew it was him, and that he'd escaped, but they had yet to figure out what the point in being in the museum was and exactly how much money he'd stolen from the bank. It would have been easier to say had he cleaned it out, but he hadn't, and so they had to go back through everything. As for the museum, they had no idea what he'd touched, and Holly didn't offer up any information.

He'd made a clean escape, that was for certain. And whether everyone was so interested in her now because she'd been close to him or because they thought she had more information, she didn't know, and she didn't really care because she didn't intend to cough up anymore information anyway. There was only one thing that really mattered to her now, and with passing and getting back to the only thing in her life she was sure of anymore. And that happened when she passed her tests with flying colors.

She was back.

 **Some reviews would be a great way to bring in the new year, no? ;) Anyway, let me know what you guys think! Any guesses as to what will happen this time around? Any resolutions you want to share? I'm all ears!**


	2. Chapter 2

2.

School was a great distraction.

The new semester started, and Holly got back into her normal routine with the ease of practice after the last two years. She got up, went for a run, went back home, showered, changed into her uniform and grabbed her bag, then went to the Academy for the remainder of the day for classes and training with the rest of the cadets her age. It was easy and mindless after a few years. All the training was good for her. It was a good way to release stress and control the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her at times.

Another few weeks passed. As she always had, Holly kept her grades up, passed everything with flying colors, and worked as hard as she could. It was even more important to her now with so many people constantly watching her. It wasn't really fair, but it just was, and she wasn't going to set herself up to fail in front of an audience.

One evening, she sat alone in her apartment, working. She had mountains of papers spread out around her on her little table, and she was curled up on the couch, Casper beside her with his big head in her lap while she worked. She hummed slightly as she wrote, lost in her work.

Casper lifted his head and growled, low in his throat. She glanced at him, frowning slightly. He seemed to do that every time someone walked by in the hallway. "Hush," she told him, but he ignored her, actually getting up and going over to the door.

Holly frowned. He didn't usually do that. Why would he-

Someone knocked.

Holly groaned, setting down her papers and getting up. Of it course it made sense because she hadn't had any actual visitors since her dad had dropped her off. He didn't growl when she came by, but he knew her footsteps. She forcefully pushed the dog away, cracking open the door.

"Oh." She pulled the door back at the sight of Trouble at the door. "Look, it's Trouble," she told him. Casper stopped when he saw who it was, his tail starting to beat against the floor.

Trouble chuckled, coming inside. She closed the door and went back to the couch. "This place is… efficient," he told her.

"It's all I need. I'm hardly ever here anyway." Holly picked up her papers again, tapping the pencil against her chin. "Why are you here, anyway? Shouldn't you be at work?"

"Not at this time. Besides, I'm still a Corporal. I don't get to do much." He shrugged. "This is when all the big stuff happens, so of course they don't need me."

"I see." She scratched the dog's head and stared at her sheet, trying to think of what to write next. "That doesn't answer why you're here."

"Because you need to get out." He sat on the arm of the couch, looking down at her and frowning. "What in the gods' names are you writing?"

"Essay on torture," Holly mumbled, staring at the paper as if not actually seeing it.

"Mhm." He took it from her, glanced over it, then threw it on the table. "Come on. Let's go out."

"No." She groaned. They'd had this conversation a hundred times as kids. Trouble, ever the social butterfly, loved to go to parties and such. Holly hated it, but she always seemed to get dragged along. "I don't want to."

"You know you want to."

"No, I don't."

"Fine. You know you _need_ to, then." He stood up.

She couldn't argue with that one, but she tried still as he pulled her to her feet. She set her heels in the floor. "If I screamed right now, my dog would attack you," she told him.

Trouble glanced at the pup. He was still sitting by the door, watching him with interest. That eerie intelligence in his eyes was enough to convince him she was right. "Come on, Holly. Just dinner. I'm paying."

Holly huffed. "I'm in my pjs, Trouble. I'm comfy and working on homework. And I know you have real work to do, Corporal or no."

"Fine." He stepped away. "Then we'll go out tomorrow. It's Friday anyway. Then you'll have no homework and no excuses and we can celebrate your first month back."

Holly stuck her tongue out and sat down again. "What if I'm not dressed again?"

"Then you'll go out that way." He made a face back at her. She pouted, picking up her paper.

"Fine." She stopped, grabbing her pencil again. "What took you so long to show up, anyway?"

"Work. And I was hoping you'd changed your anti-social ways." He grinned at her.

"You know that's never going to happen."

"It was a long shot, but I had to try."

"Try all you want. Still don't want to party." Holly chewed her lip, looking at the paper. Casper climbed back up beside her, worming his big head under her arm.

Trouble chuckled. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yep. Night."

"Night." He left.

Holly went back to her work. There was too much to do to worry about what Trouble could possibly concoct by tomorrow night.

She finished her work for the night - all that she could stomach, anyway - and headed in for bed. When she went in and laid down, something crinkled underneath her pillow.

Holly sat up again, looking around carefully. Slowly, she lifted up the pillow and looked.

It was a note. She frowned, picking it up and setting the pillow back down. She skimmed over it quickly.

 _The more narrow escapes you have the less likely you are to make it through the next one. Your number is up, Short. Don't get cocky. You're being watched._

Heart thundering, she lowered the note. It didn't make any sense. It was short and vague, and it wasn't written in anyone's handing writing she'd recognized. No one she knew would have left her a note like this.

But it almost had to be someone she knew, didn't it? Who else would Casper have let in? Unless maybe they'd gotten in without him noticing, or locked him in a closet. There certainly wasn't any blood anywhere, so there'd been no confrontation.

She held up the paper for him to sniff. "Did you let someone in here, you big dummy?" she asked him quietly. He sniffed the paper and grumbled, then turned away. She took that as a no, crumbling the paper up and setting it on her stand.

Made more paranoid by the discovery, she got up, rechecking to make sure all the doors and windows were locked before climbing back into bed. It didn't make sense. What escapes could they be referring to? And telling her she was being watched? Of course she knew that.

She laid down slowly, the words swimming in her head even as she finally fell asleep.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Somewhere far away, on a different continent, Artemis Fowl the second was experiencing similar dilemmas.

By this time, it's been over two months since his escape from the LEP. He was living comfy, in hiding, under an assumed name. He'd made some serious money from his big scandal. It was sweet, on one hand, as his funds were easily replenished with enough to search for a few more years. But on the other, he'd hurt someone he cared about dearly to do it.

Holly. He'd been keeping tabs on her from afar, assuring her progress as she finally was able to get back into school and back to her normal life. He was happy she was better, and seemed to be functioning well.

But it couldn't last long.

The reason for this? His fault, of course.

Because just recently, he'd found all out his hard work had been in vain. His father was alive, locked up somewhere he could never find him himself. His only hope was the ransom demand that had shown up.

Why now? He had no idea. He didn't know who was behind it, either, or anything else about what was going on. He was going in blind. And the money - it was outrageous, but he could pay it. He hadn't received a method to do so yet, which meant he had time before they sent it and time before they expected it. If he could get some information, he could plan and raise some more funds.

What did this have to do with Holly? That much, nothing. The problem that involved Holly had just been brought to his attention today.

He'd been hearing things, from all over the place. He was still connected to the underworld through various contacts and people from it. People were pissed at him - he'd targeted that bank on purpose, though he'd thought no one had known that, and he'd siphoned some other, eviller, well known criminals out of some money. The bank he'd chosen was much like the casino Root had watched - known for being packed with criminals' false accounts full of blood money.

Now they wanted revenge. Which, on his own, he could handle. The problem was that they knew about Holly. And that meant she was in danger.

The how, who, and why were again unbeknownst to him. But that didn't matter now, nor did he really care whether she fought him or not.

When he told her he'd be back, he certainly hadn't meant so soon. But now he was out of choices. He had to go get her and hide her before something terrible happened to her. Worry about that first, then ransom later. He still had time on that, after all.

But it looked like Holly would be out of time if he didn't act soon.

The time to do something was now. And he intended to do it.


	3. Chapter 3

3.

The next night, Holly skipped her extra training session after class to get home early enough to get her work done before Trouble got there. She could have got out of it, if she really wanted to, but she knew he was right; she really did need to get out and do something. She knew he wouldn't get her into anything too serious. Besides, it would be nice to get out and forget her problems for a bit, to pretend she was just a normal kid her age.

She went into her room, pausing at the sight of the crumpled up note on her nightstand. She did a quick inventory to make sure there were no more, then turned her attention to getting dressed. She honestly wasn't sure where they were going, but she was paranoid and it was cold and all she really cared about was being comfortable, so she settled on dark jeans, a black turtleneck, and her long, black heeled boots. She could fight in them if she needed to, and they'd hurt like hell too. Plus they were fluffy on the inside.

She was sitting on the floor playing tug-a-war with Casper when Trouble came in. He looked her over and shook his head. "You're something else, you know that?"

"Yep." She dropped the rope, and Casper swung it ferociously for a minute before dropping it, bored playing alone.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Yep. Just one question."

"What?"

She hugged her puppy. "Can I bring Casper?"

Trouble frowned slightly. "Why?"

"Because I want to and I feel bad keeping him cooped up in here all the time."

After a minute, he shrugged. "I don't see why not. Put him on a leash."

She hooked Casper to his leash and followed him out. "So where are we going?"

"Just to a hangout I know of. Me and some of the others from work chill out there sometimes. I know the owner, and as long as he's on his best behavior-" he nodded to her dog, "-we shouldn't have an issue."

Holly narrowed her eyes. "Don't insinuate my dog is going to cause a problem because he's a pit bull."

"I'm not insinuating anything. Just that he needs to be good. I'd say it if it were any dog."

"Mhm." She looked at her dog, who was looking around, trotting along happily beside her. She never had any problems with him. He always followed her commands, and he seemed to be house broken before she got him. Sometimes she wondered if he'd been trained before she got him. He almost had to have been.

They walked down the road together as the day faded into darkness. Holly let Trouble lead her, not at all familiar with where she was going but trusting him enough to go anyway.

He came to a stop in front of an old brick building. It wasn't labeled, and it looked old and possibly not even open, but he didn't even pause before pulling open the door and gesturing her in. She went inside cautiously.

There was a low thumping of bass coming from below them. She waited for Trouble to come in, letting him take the lead and following him down the stairs.

The owner sat in a car behind the desk at the bottom of the stairs. He nodded to Trouble, not saying a word, and looking her over once. He looked down at Casper and chuckled. "Your pup's house broke, right?" he asked, looking up at her.

Holly nodded. She had to admit she was surprised that that was what he asked, but not disappointed. "Yep."

"How old is he?"

She bent down and picked Casper up. He just looked at her, then at the owner, wagging his tail. "A few months."

He nodded, patting the dog's head and leaning back. "Well, go on in."

She turned and followed Trouble into the back of the giant room. It looked like one big, laid back rest area. It was old, obviously, mostly wooden down here, with furniture, tables, tvs, and all sorts of other entertainment equipment scattered around to form little, smaller areas. There was even vending machines pushed into the empty spaces along the walls in the room. It was a bit drafty, if she was being honest, but comfy.

Trouble led her into one corner of the room, in the very back, to one of the larger of the areas set up. A handful of other people were hanging out back there already. She recognized a few, although names were beyond her after so long. There were two girls and two boys that she recognized who'd graduated with Trouble, and another guy she didn't recognize.

Trouble walked in and flopped down on one of the couches beside the guy she didn't recognize. She settled slightly awkwardly into a armchair, putting Casper down. He started sniffing around, but didn't leave the area. "This isn't exactly the type of party you'd normally try to drag me to," she told Trouble, leaning back in the chair.

He grinned at her. "We're starting out slow, Short. You're not ready for the big parties yet."

"Oh, ha ha." She rolled her eyes, watching Casper roam around.

"So. Who's here…" He glanced around and started naming people off, pointing to them as he said their names. "Vanessa, Sam, Travis, Randy, and Riley." He pointed to the one beside him last.

Holly looked over all of them, shrugging. "I recognized most of them, but you know I don't do names. Where'd that one come from?"

"Riley? He's a transfer." He shrugged too. "This is my team. Most of them, anyway."

"Cool." She was trying to be nice, but she was honestly a bit bored already. "Give me some cash," she told him, standing up.

"What? Why?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Because this was your brilliant idea, and I'm hungry." She stuck out her hand.

He grumbled, pulling out his wallet and handing it to her. "Here. You can get hot food up front."

"Alright." She whistled for Casper, taking his leash and heading up to the front again.

The owner raised an eyebrow at her. "Leaving already?"

Holly settled on a stool in front of the counter. "I was told you have food for me."

"Sure do." He reached under the counter and passed her a menu. She took it, looking over it briefly. "So why's a nice girl like you need a guard dog?"

Holly blinked, looking up and then down at Casper, who sat at her feet, looking around. She shrugged. "He's not a guard dog. He was a gift. But he might make a nice K9 pup for me one day."

The man chuckled, raising his eyebrows. "I wouldn't have pegged you for a cadet."

"That makes me the best kind." She grinned at him, handing him back the menu. "I'll have the mozzarella sticks."

He put the menu away and disappeared through a door in the back for a minute. She looked down at Casper again. She supposed he did kind of look like a guard dog. Perhaps he had been trained to be one before he'd been given to her. That sounded like the kind of thing Artemis would have done. He always treated her like she was fragile.

She pushed the thought down when it crept up. She didn't want to or need to think about that right now. This was not a place she wanted to be if she broke down.

Someone slid into place on a stool beside her. She looked up, startled. It was the new guy on Trouble's team, the one she hadn't recognized. What was his name again?

"It's Riley," he told her, obviously reading her face. He smiled, and her heart stuttered slightly. She blinked in surprise at her own reaction. "Although we never got your name."

"Holly." She looked down as something brushed against her leg. Casper had slid in between her and Riley's stools, sniffing him.

He chuckled, reaching down and holding out his hand for him to sniff. "Your dog's sharp."

"He's supposed to be." She looked up again, tapping her foot against the stool.

"So you're in the Academy, right?" He looked at her.

Holly glanced over at him, chewing her lip and trying to discern his reason for asking. She really hoped he wasn't going to try to flirt with her. He was decently good looking, with caramel hair and dark chocolate eyes. He was obviously slim and fit, being a recent graduate from… wherever he'd come from. But she really wasn't looking to get into something again, no matter how sweet he may be. "Yeah," she said at last. "I just came back."

"Take a break for a bit?"

"You could say that."

The door opened and the owner came back out with her food. He handed it to her, and she pulled out Trouble's wallet and handed him a few dollars. "Anything else, kid?"

"No thanks." She smiled, hopping up and whistling for Casper. Riley followed.

"I'd have offered to pay for that, but you already stole Trouble's wallet, so I didn't see the point."

"I'm good at that." She shrugged, walking back to the vending machines and sliding in a dollar for a pop. "He knows better than to argue with me anyway."

"I noticed." He paused. "So you're the one he went on that mission for, right?"

"What?" Holly whirled on him. "How do you know that?"

"I work with him." He raised an eyebrow at her.

"I was under the impression that was a secret."

"The details were secret. But being as how the rest of us were running computers and playing guard dogs to that whole scenario, we were bound to pick up something. But don't worry - we're sworn to secrecy," he added quickly at her dark look.

"I see," she muttered, turning around and picking up the bottle the machine had spit out. She chewed this news over. Her father had told her that only he, Trouble, and Root were involved. He must have meant directly. "So did you figure that out on your own or did Trouble tell you?"

"A bit of both. We were all sworn to secrecy anyway." He shrugged.

She bit the inside of her jaw and nodded, pushing past him and heading back towards their little reset area. "I wish I would have known that was public knowledge."

"Does it make a difference?"

"Difference in what?" she asked him, still distracted.

"How you feel about it." He looked at her.

"You mean how I feel about you."

"Basically." He grinned shamelessly.

Holly shook her head. "Look, you're nice, and you're cute and all, but I can't get involved with anyone right now."

"Why not?"

She sighed. "It just wouldn't be fair to either of us. It's complicated, but trust me."

"Because you were involved with Fowl?"

Holly stopped and face him again. "Exactly how much do you know?" she demanded, getting frustrated. Was this all public knowledge now?

"More than I should," he admitted. "And more than anyone else except you four. But I didn't mean to offend you-"

"Just keep it to yourself," she interrupted. "I don't really care what you meant to do, because the answer is no, to whatever it is. I can't afford to get into anything with anyone, friendship or otherwise. I'm sorry, but it just is." She turned away, walking back to the rest area quicker than was strictly polite or necessary.

Trouble looked over at her when she sat down again. "What's the matter?" he asked, obviously noticing the thunderclouds on her brow.

"How much do they know?" she hissed at him.

He frowned. "Enough. Not too much. Why?"

"I think they know more than you think they do. He does, at least." She nodded toward the exit, as Riley still hadn't come back in.

He sighed. "No. They don't. They know what they were told, with clearance from Root." He shook his head. "I tell them not to ask you about it anymore."

"When did it become such public knowledge?" She scowled.

"It's not."

"Then why are people watching me all the time?"

"I have no idea." He frowned and stood up. "I feel like bringing you out has made you paranoid. Maybe I should just take you home."

"No." She scowled deeper. "I'm here, and I'm staying. At least until I eat."

But she ended up staying longer than that. She was eating her food when they decided to set up a game of Guitar Hero on one of the nearby TVs. She ended up staying for a few hours, long past dark, until everyone else gave up and finally decided to disperse.

It was around 11 o'clock when they finally left. Holly and Trouble left last, cleaning up what everyone else had left behind and returning all the equipment to where it belonged. Trouble nodded to the owner as they left with the promise to be back tomorrow.

He could do what he wanted, but she didn't intend to come back. She had other stuff to do.

It was cold and dark as they stepped out into the street. She shivered slightly at the eerie quiet as they started walking again.

"So Riley managed to piss you off, did he?"

"A bit. I was more surprised than anything, and I kind of took it out on him." She bit her lip. "He started spouting off stuff that he shouldn't know and I got defensive."

"You know you shouldn't scare every guy to death who hits on you." He shot her a sideways look.

"And you and Root shouldn't try to collaborate on hooking me up so that I make a decision quick enough for him," she shot back.

"I don't know what you're talking about." But the grin he tried to hide from her was answer enough.

She punched him in the arm. "Trying to start off tame my foot. I hate you."

"No, you don't."

"No, I don't," she agreed. She sighed, looking down at her dog and going silent for a minute.

Trouble glanced at her. "There was no collaboration, you know. Strictly coincidence. But I was kind of hoping you and Riley would click."

"You're just as bad a match maker now as ever, Trouble. And I'm not interested in dating right now."

"So you really felt nothing towards him? Not even a hint of attraction?" He looked over at her. "If I didn't know you were involved with Fowl, after knowing you for so long, I would say maybe you're gay and won't admit it."

Holly flushed slightly. "Oh, ha ha. I didn't say he wasn't attractive. I said I'm not going to get into something right now. And Fowl has a name, you know."

"I know. But I don't care. Fowl is his real name anyway, isn't it?" He paused. "And are you admitting that you are interested in Riley?"

"Don't be frustrating." She huffed. "I didn't say that."

"You didn't deny it, either."

"I thought we were talking about Artemis now?"

"I think you're trying to change the subject."

Holly rolled her eyes. Her apartment building was just around the corner, and she headed towards it, eager to escape inside and go to bed.

Trouble walked faster to stay with her, linking his arm through hers. "You're only frustrated because you don't want to admit it."

"I'm frustrated because you're just so frustrating." She shot him a look. He grinned back.

"If that's what you need to say." He paused, releasing her as they approached the building's door. "I'm going to give him your address."

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am." They headed up the elevator to her apartment.

"Trouble, I'm going to kill you if you do that. Just so we're clear." She exited the elevator, putting her key in her door.

"I think it's worth it." He followed her in, watching as she let Casper off the leash and glanced around. He frowned slightly as he watched her walk around. She looked like she was searching. "What are you doing?"

She stopped, turning to face him. "What do you think? I'm just paranoid. You ought to be too, in our line of work."

In truth, she was doing a sweep of the apartment to make sure nothing looked unchanged and there was no one inside. She was paranoid after finding the note the other night. But she didn't intend to tell him about it - both because of the possibility she was actually being watched and because she knew she'd have a whole world of paranoia and worry on her hands if she did. Trouble would tell her father and then he'd be paranoid and all over her, not to mention if he told the LEP… It was a mess she didn't want to deal with.

Trouble didn't look entirely convinced, but he left it at that. "Alright. Well, if you're satisfied, I'm going to go. Night."

"Night."

He left, and Holly let herself flop down on the couch. She groaned as Casper climbed up beside her and snuggled against her side. She didn't really have the will to move anymore. She was exhausted, more than she cared to admit.

In the end, she never made it off the couch. She fell asleep there and stayed there all through the night until morning.


	4. Chapter 4

4.

A few more days passed. She didn't think much about the night out with Trouble, too busy focusing on keeping up with school and her vigorous training routine. Until it intruded into her life, that was.

About a week after her night out with Trouble, she was at the gym again, training after school like she always did. She'd mastered just about every weapon they had, but she liked the wooden staff a lot, so she spent a lot of time working with it. She was bashing on the dummy again when she sensed someone watching her.

She whirled around, ready to actually use the staff, but it wasn't necessary. Her visitor was across the room from her, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. She groaned internally, lowering the staff as her irritation spiked. "What are you doing here?"

Riley stood up straight and shrugged. "Trouble told me where you lived and all, but you weren't home. I thought I might find you here."

"I always stay an extra few hours and train."

"I see that now." He paused, looking her over. "Want a sparring partner?"

She scowled at him. "No thanks." In truth, she could use one, but she wasn't going to say that now. Maybe it was petty, but she couldn't bring herself to agree to spar with him. It felt too much like giving in to what everyone else wanted her to do, and she didn't want to do that.

He seemed to sense this was her reason. He rolled his eyes. "He didn't send me, if that's what your problem is," he told her, although his voice held no attitude.

Holly frowned. "My problem is that I already told you I don't want to get involved with anyone. I've told them, too, and everyone is still pushing me. This isn't the way to get me to declare loyalty to the LEP. In fact it's actually making me want to do the opposite." Her voice was a frustrated growl at the end.

Riley sighed. "I honestly have no idea what you're talking about, and I won't push. I certainly won't ask you to do anything you don't want to do. I have more respect for you than that." He walked over to the case, opening it and examining the weapons inside. "But it's obvious that you are stressed, and you could use someone to take it out on. That dummy will only get you so far." He grabbed a staff, weighing it carefully before turning to her. "So let's spar. There's no reason that you can't use me as a tool to better yourself."

Holly bit her lip, eyeing him warily. "You're about the only guy I've ever met who would say something like that. Most guys want to use the girls, not the other way around."

"I know. I used to be one of those guys. But not so much now." He approached her slowly. "And I won't try to force myself on you when it's obvious you're still caught up with Fowl. You were right when you said that wouldn't be fair to either of us."

He swung his staff at her suddenly. The move caught her off guard, and she barely swung hers up in time to block it. She looked at him in surprise. The move was deliberate and not clumsy, like he knew how to use it. He grinned at her. "But you should realize that it's not fair for you to hold out for him either."

She batted his staff away and advanced. "Why's that?"

"Because not all guys are good enough not to use you. And based off what I've heard, he might not be one of the good ones." He swung at her again, and she was ready this time. They started battling for real, their staffs hitting again and again.

"He's not as bad as everyone thinks he is," Holly told him, pushing a hard blow at him. He batted it away.

"The fact that you can say that after being held hostage for over a month and then stabbed frankly amazes me. Have you been cleared of Stockholm?" He hit back harder.

She grunted with the force of the blow. "He did… what he had to. You have no idea what you're talking about. You know nothing about him." She spat the words out between blows.

He hit everything back at her with ease. "You think you do, but I think you're too trusting. He could have been lying."

"He wasn't lying," she growled. At the same time, she finally landed a blow, hitting him hard in the gut. He stumbled back slightly before righting himself and coming at her again.

"He easily could have. You'll likely never see him again to know, anyways."

"He said he'd come back. I trust him," she panted in response. And she did, implicitly.

"With what reason?"

"Plenty!" Holly snapped. She thrust and almost hit him hard again, but he feinted away. "You have no idea what happened there!"

"No, I don't. No one does but you." He caught her suddenly in the shoulder and the gut in two quick moves, sending her flying back and knocking her down. She huffed as she hit, her staff clattering to the ground beside her.

They were both panting. He stopped swinging, leaning on his staff and looking down at her. "I'm just telling you that everything you saw or heard may have brought you in your state to a different place than it would have someone else. There's things you may have missed and the likeliness that what he told you is real and true is low. That's all." He paused. "I don't want to see you miss out on things that could be great because of him. And if he really, actually cares about you, he ought to share the same sentiment." He extended his hand to her.

Holly eyed his hand for a moment, pressing her lips together. She hated what he was saying, mostly because she had had some doubts over the past few months that she didn't really want to explore. Because he might be right, at least on some of it. And she hated that. Finally, she sighed and took his hand, letting him pull her to her feet.

He righted her and offered her the staff back. "Had enough yet?"

Holly glanced at her watch. "Yeah. I think I need to get home. I've been here a while, and Casper needs to go out."

"So that's the dog's name." He smiled. "I can walk you home, if you want."

She shook her head, taking the staff and putting it back in the case. "It's alright. I think I can manage."

"If you insist. But one condition." He looked at her. "If you won't let me walk you home, let me take you out."

Holly sighed. "Riley-"

"Not a date," he interrupted. "You're not interested now, and that's fine. But let me take you to dinner. Trouble says you're a recluse, so any excuse to get you out is a good one." He smiled again, that bright, genuine smile, this time with a hint of amusement. She liked it more than she wanted to admit.

Holly thought about it. While she wasn't eager to keep going in and out for reasons she couldn't tell him, nothing disastrous had happened the first time, and she was sure it wouldn't take too long. "Fine. But not tonight. Saturday. So I don't have anything to do and I can get some proper rest."

"Deal." He opened the door for her, and she walked out.

"Good. I'll see you then."

He nodded in agreement, holding the building's door open for her. "See you then, Holly."

They both walked out and went their separate ways.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey people! Sorry for the long time with no update... I've been having some issues with my arm, so typing has become difficult, meaning the writing process is a bit slow, and even when I have been able to write I've spent a lot of time chasing plot bunnies and not working on old stuff, so... yeah. Also, I know this chapter ends a bit abruptly, but as we just had Valentine's day and it's been a while, I felt like I should post something, so I cut it off a bit so I could post.**

 **Anyway, enjoy! Please let me know what you think!**

5.

On Saturday evening, she came home and did much of the same thing she did with Trouble, getting ready quickly. She didn't dress too nice - in jeans, her boots again, and her red sweater. She let her hair stay loose, as it almost never was, and waited for him to show up.

He came around five o'clock. He wasn't dressed any nicer than she was, in a dark, long sleeved shirt and jeans, which she was grateful for - if he'd pressed her to make it a date she'd definitely not have went. But he was being respectful of her boundaries, thank goodness.

"Where are we going?" she asked him as she let him in.

He shrugged, glancing around. "Nowhere crazy. A little family restaurant. You can bring your dog."

She smiled and looked back. Casper was on the couch, watching them with bright eyes. She went over and got his leash, hooking him up to it and tugging for him to come. He did without a sound, joining her at her side.

Riley waited. "We can go when you're ready. It's only a short walk from here, so I didn't figure you'd mind."

"I'm ready. And that's fine." She shrugged, pulling on Casper's leash and heading out the door. Riley followed, then took the lead as they left the building.

They talked easily as they headed towards the restaurant. Once she let her guard down and stopped being so defensive, it was easy to banter and talk with him. He was sweet and relatable, and she stayed calm as long as they were on a topic that wasn't related to the force or her mission like they'd talked about the other day. She liked him, admittedly, but she wouldn't say anything or let anything happen. She just couldn't. Even if Artemis never came back, she wasn't ready to do that yet.

The restaurant they went to was homey and small, but busy. The food and the service were great, and she was even able to get Casper a little plate of meat and a bowl of water. Riley apparently knew the owners, an old couple, and they gave them no issues at all with her dog.

It was completely dark by the time they left the restaurant. A chill had come that wasn't there before. They stayed close together as they walked towards her apartment.

"Thanks for dinner," Holly told him as they neared her building.

"No problem. It was fun." He smiled warmly. "Maybe we could even do it again sometime."

"Maybe," she agreed, smiling. She looked away, seeing her apartment approaching, then down for a minute. "I'm pretty busy though, so we'll see."

He chuckled. "I've noticed." He paused, looking like he wanted to say something else but thought better of it.

She started to ask what, wanting to know despite knowing she probably really didn't, but stopped when there was a jerk on Casper's chain. She frowned and looked back. The dog had stopped, his head cocked as if he'd heard something. "Come on," she told him.

But he didn't move. After a minute, she heard what he heard too. The squealing of tires, as if a car was coming towards them way too fast.

"Riley-" Holly started, but she never got to finish.

Someone grabbed her from behind. She yelped and spun, bringing the heel of her boot up and kicking out. She made contact, but where in the dim lighting was beyond her. There was a satisfying crunch and a yelp, but before she could even right herself someone else was on her.

Riley didn't seem to be faring much better. She heard it when he finally gave out, but she couldn't stop to look. Every time she hesitated for a split second someone else landed a blow on her. Casper was snarling viciously from somewhere far off, but she couldn't see him either.

And then someone cuffed her hard enough in the back of the head that she collapsed. Everything went black.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Holly woke up some time later.

She knew instantly when she opened her eyes that she had to have been sedated after being knocked out, as she could see daylight through the barred window a few feet away. If she'd been knocked out that long, it was from more than that blow.

She sat up slowly, feeling her muscles protesting. For one thing, she'd been beat around pretty good during the fight, and a quick glance around showed she was on sleeping on stone ground with her arms - as she discovered when she tried to pull herself up - drawn and bound behind her with chains. She felt tired and achy, and her head was pounding, whether from the blow that had knocked her out or whatever they'd given her to make her stay that way. Probably a bit of both.

She sighed, looking around. Her cell was barren. There was nothing she could possibly use to escape her chains or the room. She was stuck, for the time being.

Her mind whirled as she laid back against the wall behind her. Who would have taken her? Why? What happened to Riley and her dog? Had they left them? Shot them? Her heart sped up at the thought, but it was undeniably a possibility. Even if they'd taken Riley too and he was prisoner in another room, there was no reason to take Casper or even keep him alive. He had been attacking them still when she passed out, after all.

She laid there for what must have been hours with no sign of anyone. It was desolate, and too quiet - it left her with way too much time to think about anything and everything she could. She thought about Riley and her dog, wondering what happened to them. She thought about her dad. How long had she been gone? How long until someone noticed? She really didn't want to think about how he'd react when he found out she was missing. She hated that this kept happening - not even for her own sake, but for his, and her mother's. Just the thought of something happening to either of them was nearly unbearable. She couldn't imagine how it must feel.

But she did have similar experiences, she supposed. Like with Artemis. She hadn't seen the criminal since he'd stabbed her, and though he'd assured her in a note that he got away, she couldn't help worrying. That was months ago. She was sure she'd have heard about it one way or another if he'd been captured, but she still wondered about him constantly. Where was he now? What was he doing? Was he laying low, as he'd told her he intended to, or off in another country committing crimes? Had he had any luck finding his father? She longed to know, to have some idea of how he was, but she had no idea how to go about it, and regardless she wouldn't risk doing something that might somehow end up with him in custody if the LEP found out.

She shook her head. She couldn't afford to be thinking of stuff like that right now. She should be trying to find a way out, she knew, but she just didn't see one, and without even knowing what she was up against…

From somewhere far sounding, she heard a door creak open. She sat up immediately. She had no idea where she was, granted, or if she was the only one here, but she was hoping to catch a glimpse of whoever was coming, one way or another.

She waited as the door closed and footsteps started towards her. Every sound echoed, and she couldn't tell for sure how many people were coming. Her heart raced. She hoped that whoever it was would have the key to getting out of her chains, and then if they got close enough she might have some chance of escape. It was a weak hope, but still possible, assuming she could leverage her body enough and force her aching muscles into cooperation.

It never occurred to her that she might not need to. But escape was coming in a completely different way.

The footsteps grew closer, and a shadow spread along that wall outside her cell. There was only one, but it was big, indicating a someone tall and probably male. Still, she had a good chance of taking one person out on her own. Or so she thought until he rounded the corner.

Holly gasped and sat up as the man came into view. She couldn't stop the smile from growing onto her face. "Artemis?"

The criminal smiled at her. His blue eyes were dark and rimmed with black bags, and he looked exhausted, although he was already working on the lock to her cell. "Hello, Holly."

He picked the lock and slid open the door. She bit her lip as he came over and knelt beside her, starting to work on the lock for the chains binding her arms. "How did you-"

"Surely you realize that aside from the fact that I'm a genius, Holly, and one with the right tools to surveil you at that, you were abducted to use against me. Of course I knew as soon as it happened." He sighed, scowling darkly at the lock when it refused to give. "Damn. I need two picks for this one. Mulch!" He raised his voice on the last part, hollering loud enough to be heard outside.

The dwarf materialized at the door almost instantly, and Artemis motioned him over. Together they easily picked the lock holding the chains on her wrists. Mulch tossed them aside as Artemis stood and helped her to her feet. He stared at her for a moment, his blue eyes still dark and unreadable, then pulled her against him, hugging her tightly for a long moment before releasing her. "Let's go," he ordered, taking her hand and following Mulch out.

Holly didn't resist, following him out willingly but still confused. "I don't understand. What's going on?"

"Later, Holly. This place isn't secure." He was breathless and curt but not unkind. Holly sighed and let it drop, knowing he'd tell her later if she pressed but now wasn't the time to do so.

He lead her up a few flights of stairs and down several hallways, heading for the exit. She said nothing, just kept pace with him, taking everything in. She had no idea where she was, or who'd taken her, but it seemed now she likely wouldn't find out. She looked at him again, feeling affection and gratitude well up in her chest. He'd came for her, even when she hadn't known he'd needed to. Any doubts she'd had before melted away.

Finally, they reached a side exit and ran out. Mulch hopped in a waiting car, and they followed. Holly threw a single glance back at the building behind them before letting Artemis pull her in the car.

"Why didn't anyone pursue us?" she mused aloud, looking out the window at the building.

"We took everyone out on the way in. It was easier that way." Artemis glanced at his watch, frowning. He pulled her away from the window suddenly.

"Hey, what are you-"

A muffled roar from behind them made her jump, and she pulled out of Artemis's grasp to look. The building has exploded behind them. She could see the flames devouring what was left of the building, smoke curdling the air around the inferno that used to be a her prison. She turned back to Artemis, feeling slightly stunned. "Did you-"

"Yes, I did that. Retribution." He shrugged, looking unabashed by her appalled look. He bopped her nose reprovingly. "Don't give me that look, darling. It was empty after we left, and I couldn't just take you back without teaching them a lesson."

Holly frowned, rearing back instinctively when he touched her nose. She knew it made sense, of course, but still - it was the battle that would always be ongoing if they ever had a future. Her cop instincts and morals versus the fact he was and always would be a criminal.

Artemis sighed, taking her hand and pulling her closer to him. "Come on. You can't really be upset." He tilted her chin up. "Do you know what they would have done to you if I hadn't shown up when I did?" He met her gaze, his blue eyes dark and serious. "You don't want to know who was headed your way with a bag of tools when we got there."

Holly shuddered at the thought, leaning into him. "No, I don't. Because it's over now, and how I feel about your methods means absolutely nothing in the long run." She rested her head on his shoulder. "Thank you for saving me."

He chuckled. She felt the vibration in his chest at the sound before he tilted her head up, resting his forehead against hers. "Silly girl. Did you really think I would go through all that trouble to keep you alive just to let you be killed by the first idiot who thought they could use you against me?" His lips brushed against hers as he spoke, sending a shiver down her spine.

Unable to help herself, she leaned forward, pressing her lips to his in a real kiss. She felt him sigh against her lips before pulling her closer, deepening it and pulling her into his lap. She was suddenly incredibly grateful for his genius in designing these cars so they didn't need seatbelts as she straddled his lap, running her hands through his dark hair and revealing in the feeling. She'd tried to play down how much she missed him over the past few months because it hurt to think about it, but now, faced with him, kissing him again, it was like a hole in her heart she had ignored was suddenly fixed, and she felt whole again in a way she hadn't since she'd woke up in the hospital that morning in France.

Artemis kissed her back for a long minute before pushing her back gently. "Easy, Holly. We have time," he whispered against her cheek. "Besides, I-" he stopped, swallowing thickly. "Let me see your side."

Holly sighed, moving back and letting him lift the side of her shirt. She was panting softly, her skin rising and falling quickly as she regulated her breathing. When he ran his fingers over the scar on her side, her skin peebled at his touch.

Artemis exhaled deeply at the sight, running his finger over the scar softly. "Does it hurt?"

"Not anymore. It twinges occasionally, usually only when I'm active, but other than that it's as if nothing ever happened." She looked at him.

The criminal shook his head, lowering her shirt again slowly. He was looking down, his gaze far off and glazed over. "No, it's not. I scarred you for life, Holly. Not to mention the time you had to spend away from doing what you love recovering from it, and all the pain you suffered in the process…"

"Hey!" Holly tilted his head up, forcing him to meet her gaze as his eyes refocused. "It was not near as bad as you think it was, and I'm stronger for it, okay? Anyway, the only person whose opinion of my body I care about is sitting right here, so I couldn't give a damn less about that scar." She ran a hand through his hair softly, trying to make him feel better. It was obvious he was wracked with guilt about what happened. "Alright? I'm _fine_."

Artemis leaned into her touch and nodded, looking up at her. He didn't say anything for a long minute, just looking at her, then reaching up to cup her face. "I'm glad I got to you in time to keep it that way," he said quietly.

"Me too." She smiled, leaning into him as the car came to a stop. She blinked, looking out the window. "Where are we?"

"The new headquarters." He pushed her off his lap, getting out and pulling her out with him. "For now, anyway. It's the best I could do on short notice."

Holly stepped out and suddenly realized where they were. The Summit hotel.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello people!**

 **I think I have a solid idea of where I'm going with this... and I'm also allowed to type again, so updates should come more frequently, I promise. IF I get some reviews. If you all care enough to follow or favorite, you should be reviewing. I promise it really gives me motivation. And I love hearing from you guys. :)**

 **So this chapter is a little conflict and it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but I promise all will be revealed in the next one. :)**

6.

The Summit Hotel, the same place Root had tested and subsequently recruited her to work with them against him, although Artemis had no way of knowing that. "Here?" she said incredulously. "But…" she looked away, down the road. She could actually _see_ the Plaza from here.

Artemis shook his head, pulling her towards the entrance. "I know, Holly. But I had to get close and quick, and this was the best option. Well - the only one around here, really." He shrugged, holding the door open for her.

Holly went inside, chewing her lip. It would be so easy for them to catch him here - all it took was for someone to look out the window at the wrong time and they might spot him.

He sensed her preoccupation and sighed, pulling her into the elevator and sliding a card into it for the top floor. Holly raised an eyebrow. "You're in the penthouse suite?"

"Always." He smirked at her, reaching over and running a hand through her hair.

"That doesn't provide you with a very adequate escape route," Holly pointed out.

"Now you sound like Butler." Artemis rolled his eyes, but he was still smirking slightly as he pulled her into his side and led her out of the elevator. "Let me worry about things like that. Besides, I've been laying low like I promised. I don't anticipate any trouble."

"Artemis. They are _down the street_. They wouldn't even have to be looking for you to find you, and they know what you look like now, and-"

He sighed, and that was all the warning she got before he pushed her against the wall, kissing her deeply. Holly stopped talking abruptly, tensing for a moment and then melting against him. He held her there for a long moment, kissing her, before pulling back. "Calm down," he whispered, nuzzling her cheek. "I know the risks, Holly. And I make my own decisions. Believe me when I say rescuing you and protecting you is worth every potential minute in jail if I were to get caught." He pulled back, squeezing her hand and tugging her into the kitchen.

Holly followed him, sighing slightly. She still didn't like it, but it warmed her heart to know for certain that he cared so much for her still. "What makes you so sure that nothing is going to happen?"

"I'm not sure, Holly. But I sincerely doubt it." He shrugged, pushing her onto one of the barstools and walking over to the fridge. "I'm not their biggest worry about the moment."

Holly frowned. "You're not? Since when?" Last she'd heard, they were still furiously searching for him.

"Since Turnball reappeared," he told her simply. "Julius is always going to worry more about catching his brother than me. I'm irritating; he's a stain on his name and reputation. What do you want to eat?" He switched topics easily, not even pausing between sentences.

She blinked and frowned. "Turnball?" she repeated. Even saying his name made her mouth feel sour. The fact that he was up to no good again didn't surprise her, but it did irritate her quite a lot that no one had warned her about it, after her personal involvement with the last incident. "What's he doing?"

"I don't know and I don't care." He sighed, turning to her. "That's not my problem. And the fact that it takes the heat off of me is just an added bonus." He kissed her softly. "Now, food. What do you want?"

"I don't know. Anything." Holly shrugged, her mind still on the topic of Turnball. She couldn't help wondering why her father hadn't told her, but she wasn't going to try to call and ask. She wasn't sure how Artemis would feel about that, and she didn't really want to try to explain where she was to him, either. But then again… "How long was I missing?" she asked suddenly.

"It's been about two days." Artemis sighed, returning to the cabinet and starting to pull out boxes of mac and cheese from the cabinet.

"Two days?" Holly repeated, disbelieving. "I was unconscious for two days?"

"They kept you sedated until things were established." He pulled out the cheese packs and dumped the noodles in a pan. "I wasn't in the country. It took most of a day to get here, which was the time they gave me to get to you and get you back in one piece. My time was up by a few hours when we got there. That's why you were allowed to come around, and… well… I already told you they were coming to torture you when I got there."

Holly nodded and looked down, unable to contain a shudder at the thought. "Yeah…"

"But enough of the unpleasant talk." He filled the pan with water and set it on the stove to boil. "How was your date?"

"Date?" Holly blinked in surprise. "What date?"

"I already told you I was surveilling you." He shrugged, sitting down on the stool beside her. "You were on your way home when you got abducted."

"I-well, yeah, but it wasn't a date." Holly frowned slightly. "We're just… friends." It seemed wrong to use that term when she barely knew him, but she couldn't deny she'd had a good time with him and if Trouble trusted him, she saw no reason not to.

"You don't have to defend it, Holly. I expected you'd move on with your life when I had to leave." He shrugged again, reaching up and tucking her hair behind her ear.

Holly caught his hand, toying with his fingers. "I wasn't….moving on. I was… barely functioning, honestly." She looked up at him. "If you want the truth, I told him I couldn't go out with him because I wasn't over you. I did agree to hang out with him, since Trouble trusts him, and I was… kind of getting yelled at for not doing anything besides schoolwork."

Artemis tilted his head, looking at her thoughtfully. "And why was that?"

"Because… I didn't want to." She shrugged, looking down.

He tilted her head up again, leaning closer to her. "Because you "weren't over me", as you put it?"

Her breath caught at his closeness. "That's… an understatement," she breathed.

"I should hope so." He smiled, then leaned in and was kissing her again, deeply, his hands moving to her waist and lifting her on the table. She wrapped her arms around his neck, closing her eyes and feeling him move closer, situating himself between her knees as his hand slid under her shirt, brushing over the scar on her ribs again.

Then the phone rang.

Artemis made a displeased noise and pulled back. Holly watched him pull a phone out of his pocket, panting slightly. It took a moment for it to occur to her that it was her phone he held. "Is that…"

"Yours? Yes. They confiscated it and I retrieved it before coming to get you," he murmured, frowning at the screen. He turned the phone towards her and showed her the caller ID. _Dad_.

Holly cursed under her breath, reaching for it slowly but not answering it. She glanced at the screen again, then at him. "Should I…?"

"Answer it." He sighed, stepping back and moving to the stove to stir the noodles. "He doesn't need to worry about you anymore. I'm sure he's been frantic for days now."

"What do I tell him?" She looked at the screen again, feeling slightly queasy. On one hand he was right, and she didn't want her father to worry. On the other…well, she also didn't want him to find out she was with Artemis again. Who knew what he would do then.

"Don't worry about it. Just answer the phone."

She nodded, taking a deep breath and accepting the call. She put it on speaker, wanting Artemis to be able to hear what was going on and join in if necessary. "H-hello?"

"Holly!" He sounded so _relieved_ that she felt her heart twist in her chest. "Where are you? Are you alright? What happened?"

Holly glanced at Artemis, feeling guilt sitting heavy in her stomach. His back was to her, but she could tell he didn't look happy either. "I'm… fine," she said at last. "It's complicated, but I'm okay now. I can't tell you where I am, but I'm… safer here than where I was."

"Don't speak in riddles, Short." Holly nearly groaned at the sound of Root's voice. "Give me a straight answer. What's going on?"

She looked at Artemis, unsure what to say - or what she was even allowed to say - but the criminal's back was still to her. "I don't know much. I was abducted on the way home from the restaurant with Riley-"

"We gathered the kidnapping bit from what we got from Riley," Root interrupted her. "Who, how, or why, we don't know yet. Where were you the past few days? Did you escape?"

"Well, I don't know where I was, and… not exactly, but I'm not a prisoner anymore." She bit her lip, unsure how else to put it.

"Holly…" her father's voice was a low growl. "Tell me what's going on."

Artemis had turned around sometime during the conversation, eyeing her speculatively but staying quiet. Seeing she was at a loss, he sighed and took the phone from her. "She said she doesn't know, Major. I'd advise you leave it at that."

The line went silent for a long moment. Then Root's voice came through the line again. "Fowl?"

"The one and only." He walked back over to the stove, stirring the noodles again. "Holly is with me, but she's safe, I assure you. I rescued her before-"

"Rescued? Is that what you're calling it?" Chris's voice was still a growl, although a bit more of a shaky one this time. "I think abduction is closer to the word you're looking for."

"Dad!" Holly got up, slightly irritated. "He didn't abduct me. He saved me from the people who abducted me."

"Taking you from the other people who abducted you is still kidnapping, Holly," her father told her scathingly.

Artemis interrupted again. "Call it whatever you wish. At least I'm not torturing her as they were going to." He paused, smiling softly at her and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She bit her lip, looking down. It was honestly amazing to her how he could look at her so tenderly and speak so coldly at the same time. "Although perhaps you're not too far off the mark, as I don't intend to let her go again."

"What are you talking about, Fowl?" Root demanded.

Artemis hesitated, looking at her. She still wouldn't meet his eyes. He hadn't told her much yet, and he didn't want to reveal too much over the phone either. "Holly is in danger," he said at last. "Partially because of me, and partially because of circumstances out of my control. I'm going to fix it, but until I can get some things sorted out, she needs to stay with me, where I can protect her."

"And your protection is so much better than ours, I suppose?" Chris muttered bitterly.

The criminal frowned, trying not to get irritated. He knew he'd been through a lot, and after watching him stab his daughter, it was hardly a surprise he didn't trust him with her, but the major's utter resistance to any kind of help or solution from an outside source was still irritating. "Are you serious, Major? You have no idea what you're up against or even who is after her. And I might remind you that it wasn't my watch she was abducted on, it was yours, and that part of this situation is your fault, too. I'd advise you not to forget that."

"I'm not very interested in taking any of your so-called advice, Fowl," he growled.

"Of course not. You're more interested in trying to make any contact with me a pissing contest than an actual conversation." Artemis hissed into the phone. "Because apparently your daughter's safety isn't something worth enough to you to even consider what I have to say or my way of thinking."

Holly looked up at him at that, surprised. For one thing, she'd rarely ever heard him swear, and she couldn't help being startled hearing him cuss so violently. And at her father, no less. "Artemis-"

Chris continued right over her. "Safety? You're going to talk to me about her _safety_? You _stabbed_ her!" he thundered into the phone.

Artemis recoiled visibly from the phone. Guilt and pain flashed across his face, and he looked down, taking a few deep breaths and collecting himself before answering. "I'm well aware of what I did, Major," he told him quietly. "Believe me, I regret it just as much as you do. I can't change it, but I am trying to make up for it."

"You don't just make up for stabbing someone, Fowl," Root interrupted. "That's not how it works. And believe me, when I get ahold of you, that's only the first charge of hundreds you'll have to answer for. So you'd better enjoy your freedom while it lasts." He stopped. "Is Holly still there?"

She looked up for the first time in a few minutes, biting her lip. Artemis nodded to her without looking at her, silently telling her to answer. "Right here," she answered.

"Well, hang tight, Short. We'll get you out eventually. I can't promise when, but we will."

Is that a threat or a promise? she wondered. She wanted to protest that she wasn't in danger, but she was honestly tired of the arguing already. "Alright," was all she said.

"Good." Root stopped, and suddenly it was her father's voice coming through the line again, calmer this time. "Holly?"

"Yeah Dad?"

"Just hang tight. Do what he tells you and don't give him any reason to hurt you until we can get you out. Alright?"

"But I'm not-"

"Alright?" he said again, louder, cutting off her protests.

Holly sighed. "Right. Fine." She bit her lip. "Love you, Dad," she added softly, reluctant and irritated but still unwilling to let him go without saying it.

Christopher hesitated, obviously weighing what listening ears could make of it before giving in. "I love you too, Holly. Stay safe." He hung up before either of them could say anything more.

Holly sighed, closing her eyes for a brief moment to steady herself. She heard Artemis sigh heavily too and opened her eyes, looking at him. He smiled tiredly at her and drew her in. He pressed his face in her hair, and she leaned into him, somehow feeling secure and safe in his arms despite everything.

"I'm sorry," he murmured into her hair.

"I know." She lifted her head from his chest and looked at him. "Me too."

His brow furrowed slightly, and he shook his head. "Holly. You did nothing wrong."

"I know. But it's my dad who's being a jackass." She sighed.

Artemis chuckled and kissed her hair. "Yes, well, I suppose I can't fault him for being worried. He doesn't know the full story, after all. He just knows that I hurt you once, and now you're back in my grasp again…" He shrugged. "I would be worried if you were my daughter too. It's just the fact that he has to be so _stubborn…_ "

Holly looked down, unable to argue with that. There was one thing that was certain about both her father and herself, and that was that they both had stubborn streaks a mile long and fiery tempers to match. His temper was worse than hers, certainly, but she could go off too, depending on the subject and who she was arguing with. She chewed her lip, looking back up and Artemis. "Is that your preference?" she asked him, trying to change the topic to something lighter. Seeing him so stressed and haggard-looking all the time stressed her out too, and who knew how much time they had besides?

Artemis blinked, looking startled. "My preference?" he repeated, clearly unsure what she was talking about.

"Yes. A daughter." Holly reached around him and grabbed the cheese packet, tearing it open and adding it to the noodles. She pulled the pan over to her, mixing it in.

Artemis stared at her for a long moment before the clouds seemed to clear from his brow and comprehension dawned. "Oh." He paused, thinking about it. "Perhaps. I would be happy with either, with the right person." He smiled softly at her, tucking her hair behind her ear. "But that's not something I can consider for… a while yet, Holly. Not in my occupation."

Holly looked down and sighed. "I know. Just trying to lighten the mood some." She scooped some of the mac and cheese into a bowl and offered it to him. "I would take either, too. But I think I want one of each. Or just girls. Guys are so… pig headed." She smirked at him.

He chuckled, taking it and moving to the table. "I can't argue with that." He paused, waiting for her to make her bowl and taking her by the elbow. "I don't have the time to, at any rate. Unfortunately, there's more pressing matters at hand."

"Like what?"

"Like why you were abducted, why you're in danger, and... what's going on, really." He pulled her into the living space and settled them both on the couch. "I don't like it, but you deserve to know, and… honestly, at this point, it's not safe to keep you in the dark any longer." He rubbed his face.

"So I get the whole story this time?" Holly curled up against him, leaning into his side and looking up at him. "Without having to beg to get it?"

Artemis smiled tiredly down at her. "Mm, we'll have to see what we can do about the begging later, but… no. I'll tell you." He sighed, kissing her hair and looking down. "Here goes…"

 **So! As I said, full story in the next chapter. Promise. ;)**

 **Also, just a PSA, NL is going to be under rewrite (although I'm not taking it down quite yet), and I'm posting a new story that is going to be another massive undertaking, and I'm kind of in love with the plot, so... yeah. I'll be posting it as soon as I'm done here. And going off that...**

 **Please review! For both of them. I love seeing my stuff get views and follows but hearing your opinions is even nicer and it really motivates me to post. So please keep that in mind. Can I get, say, five reviews to the next chapter?**

 **Love you all!**

 **~Cap**


	7. Chapter 7

7.

"Alright," he began, turning to face her. "I don't want to tell you too much, admittedly, because I don't want you to panic, but… I will do my best to answer your questions." He paused, looking down and stirring his food to avoid looking at her. "The best, simplest thing I can tell you is that I pissed some people off. People whose power and reach makes me look like a petty criminal. And they want revenge."

"What's that have to do with me?"

"Your involvement has leaked somehow. You're a high ranking official's daughter - perfect bait for the LEP, and you could be used against me. That puts you in an awful lot of danger." He frowned, shaking his head and jabbing a bite of macaroni forcefully. "And I don't have the immediate time to deal with it because I have to find a way to pay my father's ransom and not get killed in the process."

Holly blinked in surprise. "Wait, you found him?" she blurted, her mind spinning. They'd talked about him and his family when he'd been holding her hostage - and she used that term loosely - the first time, and she'd even met his little brothers. His father was missing and his mother was insane because of it; and he did what he did to try to fix it, to get the money to find him and put his family back together. Her heart tugged slightly at the thought. If he'd finally found him, then maybe...

"No. They found me, somehow. Who it is and why now I don't know, but I don't have time to worry about it." His frown deepened. She could see the stress lines on his brow, how old and scarred he really was in his eyes. It hurt her heart to see him looking so lost and vulnerable.

"I'm sorry, Artemis," she told him quietly.

He snapped back to reality, looking at her. "Don't be. I want you here with me anyway. I don't mind keeping you safe."

"I know. I just mean for everything." She sighed. "You shouldn't have to worry about me right now."

"Well, now I don't." He smiled tiredly at her.

Holly nodded, wondering internally if she should tell him about the note. It made more sense now - why she'd got it, but not what it said. She didn't really want to add to his stress level though.

Artemis seemed to sense her wavering. "What is it?"

"Well…" she started awkwardly. "I found this note in my apartment a while ago. It didn't make much sense though," she rushed to finish as his face darkened.

"What did it say?" He sounded deadpan, but she knew enough to know it was a coverup for what he was really feeling, whatever that was.

"Not much. Something about me not being able to narrowly escape stuff every time and that eventually my number will be up so I shouldn't get cocky. And that I was being watched." She sighed, looking down and stirring her macaroni to avoid looking at him now.

Artemis nodded silently. She could see his jaw was clenched tightly, but he looked away so she couldn't read his eyes, obviously thinking. "No signature or anything identifying?"

"No. Nothing."

"Hmm…" He pressed his lips together. "Well, now I'm glad I didn't attempt to contact you. I figured you had multiple people keeping tabs on you, but I didn't expect this."

"It doesn't matter now, does it?" she asked anxiously, watching him take a bite.

He started and looked at her, startled. "What? No. Of course it matters. Why wouldn't it?" He frowned at her.

"I…" She mirrored his expression, frowning. "Well, I mean, I'm safe now, right? I'm with you."

Artemis stared at her, several emotions flickering across his face in quick succession, too fast for her to read them. He looked conflicted. "Holly… I would like to say yes, but truthfully… nothing is certain. We will be setting up codewords and several other security measures to try to keep all of us as safe as possible." He kissed her softly.

Holly leaned into him, sighing. She took another bite, thinking as she chewed. "So… who is after you?"

"I don't know. Possibly the same people who left you the note." Artemis sighed. "I have my suspicions, but nothing I intend to say nor voice until I have further evidence and get somewhere more secured."

Holly started slightly. "What? You're leaving?"

"We're leaving," Artemis corrected. "Not immediately, but soon. We need to go somewhere safer. This place isn't safe, as I recall you so accurately pointed out earlier." He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "We're still waiting on a few things first."

"Like what?"

"Like…" Artemis checked his phone and smiled. "A very important present that's coming up the elevator right now."

"Present?" Holly repeated, her brow furrowing.

A knock at the door was the only response she got. Artemis flashed her a cheeky grin, getting up and answering it without even speaking. He walked over and opened the front door silently.

Something big, fluffy, and white jumped from the arms of the giant manservant at the door and rushed her. Her bowl was knocked out of her hands and fell to the floor, spilling all over the ground in front of the couch, but Holly couldn't be bothered to care. She laughed happily as her dog leapt into her lap. "Casper!" she cried, delighted.

Her dog was too busy sniffing and crawling all over her to respond to his name. Artemis laughed, closing the door behind his bodyguard. "He was worried about you," Butler told her, smiling what passed for softly on his gruff form. "They must have shut him up in your apartment after you were abducted. He was howling like crazy when I got there to get him."

Holly giggled, hugging her dog tightly. He snuggled up under her chin, looking back at Artemis with dark, intelligent eyes. He wolfed softly.

Artemis chuckled, looking at them and shaking his head. "Well, that will need cleaned up," he remarked, sounding wholly satisfied and unconcerned. He turned to Butler. "Was anyone there? Did you find anything?"

"No. I did a sweep - which wasn't too hard as the apartment had already been turned upside down - but there wasn't anything of interest except this." He pulled a note out of his pocket, handing it to his boss.

Artemis took it and unfolded it, his brow furrowing slightly as he read. He walked over and showed it to Holly. "Is this the note?"

Holly looked at it for a moment and nodded. "That's the one."

He nodded, watching with slight amusement as Casper sat up and sniffed it. He growled lowly. Holly sighed, patting his head to calm him down. Artemis turned, handing the note back to Butler. "Get this tested. Fingerprints, DNA, the works. I want to know everyone who has ever come in contact with it." He looked at Holly, smiling softly, but his gaze telling her he was completely serious. "We're going to figure out who wrote it."

Holly nodded, smiling back. Somehow, she had no doubt he'd figure it out. She just wondered what would happen when he did, and who would regret it more.

Artemis checked his watch. "Alright. It's been a long few days for you." He held out his hand. "Let's get you to bed."

Holly looked out the nearest window and was startled to notice the sun was setting. "Wow. The day went by fast," she blurted, surprised.

He chuckled. "That's because you were asleep most of it. It was already afternoon when we got here, Holly."

"Oh." She blinked, taking his hand and letting him pull her to her feet.

He pulled her close, kissing her softly. "Oh is right. Time for bed." He glanced at Casper, who had gotten down when he'd pulled Holly up and started eating her spilled food. "Well, I supposed we won't have to worry about cleaning that up now, will we?" He smiled at her. "Let's go." He steered her towards the stairs.

Holly followed him silently, whistling for her dog. Casper quickly finished devouring her food and was on their heels in an instant, weaving between their legs and up the stairs. Artemis chuckled, stopping in front of a door and opening it. He bolted in, and Artemis stepped back, letting Holly enter before closing the door.

She looked around, taking in the bedroom suite. He stepped up behind her, wrapping his arms around her torso and kissing her hair softly. "Like it?"

"It's nice, but… I prefer the other hotel." She smiled at him.

He chuckled. "Me too, admittedly. But alas, we have to make due for now." He lead her to the bed.

"Is that where we're going?" Holly asked, climbing in and laying down.

"No. I have somewhere nicer and even more secluded set up." He smiled, laying next to her and kissing her softly before pulling her into his chest. Holly snuggled into him willingly. She felt Casper pad up and lay against her back and smiled. "I'll tell you about it later," he promised quietly into her hair. "Now, sleep."

Holly was only too happy to oblige. Even with all the revelations of the past day swirling around in her head, she felt safe and secure, sandwiched in warmth and comfort by the two beings she was sure would protect her with their lives, and vice versa. She smiled as she drifted off to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

8.

It was late the next morning by the time Holly finally opened her eyes. She yawned and sat up, looking around. Both Casper and Artemis were nowhere to be seen.

She got up, steadying herself against the bed frame and blinking again. She went over to the door and looked out both ways, frowning slightly. She'd followed Artemis up here last night, but she still wasn't entirely sure of the layout of this place. She managed to find the staircase, going back downstairs to a kitchen area.

Artemis was already at the stove, making eggs and bacon in two separate pans. He looked like he couldn't have been up much longer than she was. Casper was sniffing around at his feet. She watched silently from the bottom of the stairs for a moment as Artemis whistled for Casper and passed him a piece of burnt bacon. She smiled.

"What are you feeding my dog?" she asked jokingly as she came in, kneeling down to pet Casper.

"Bacon." He shrugged, dumping some of the bacon onto a plate before turning away from the stove to face her.

"Just no cheese." She scratched between his ears and stood up, pulling out a stool from the counter and settling onto it.

"Of course not." He offered her a piece of bacon.

Holly took it, taking a bite and thinking about their conversation last night. It seemed like he had told her as much as he knew, but that still wasn't much. "So… are you actually going to tell me where we are going, or is it actually top secret again and you just said that to appease me?"

He shot her a bemused look and added a few more pieces to the pan. "My private island."

She choked and had to swallow hard to make it go down. He raised an eyebrow at her. "You have a _private island_?"

"Well, it's my family's, but being as how I'm the eldest heir and the only one capable of using it, it's technically mine." He shrugged. "It's in the ocean about midway between Ireland and Europe. It gives us good vantage to go either direction and get there fast. No one else knows about it but my family, so it's as secure as it gets. And it's beautiful and secluded, so no one can hear you scream." He smirked, leaning over and kissing her chastely.

Holly rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help smiling too. "Ha-ha. You're so cute," she teased.

Artemis looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "Cute? There's nothing cute about what I will do to you, Holly." He pointed the spatula at her. "You still have a promise to keep, little one. Don't think I've forgotten."

She stared at him until he mimed handcuffs snapping on, then flushed deeply. "Oh…" she murmured. She had forgotten.

He chuckled. "Oh yes. But we have time until we can do that." He smirked at her again, dumping the bacon onto a plate.

Holly nodded slowly, looking down. Her heart fluttered at the thought - with fear, admittedly, but also with excitement. She trusted him, nerves or no, and he'd never taken advantage of her before. "Well… I look forward to it, then," she told him, quietly, and got a real smile in response.

"Good." He kissed her softly, handing her a bowl of eggs. "We'll be leaving in a few hours, so eat up."

"Why does this talk feel oddly familiar?" Holly mused, taking a bite.

"Because we had a very similar talk a few times before. The difference is this time we're going somewhere together." He smiled, taking a bite of his own and passing Casper another piece of bacon. The dog took it gently and stepped back before eating it. The sight reminded her of her wonderings the other day.

"Did you have him trained before you gave him to me?" Holly blurted suddenly.

"Trained?" Artemis tilted his head. "Some simple commands, yes, but otherwise, no. Why?"

"He just… does things normal dogs don't do. He acts like a guard dog, and he's just… quirky and-" she stopped as Casper lifted his head towards the door and growled lowly. "Like that! He does that everytime someone is coming through the hallway."

Artemis stood up and checked his phone. "No one should be coming through the hallway. There's one elevator entrance and it's monitored by Butler. If he were coming up, he'd have sent me a message."

"So… who's coming?" Holly asked.

"Let's see." He walked out into the living area, and Holly followed, Casper at her heels. Artemis motioned for her to stay back from the door. She suddenly noticed that a knife had just appeared in his other hand and frowned slightly, deciding it was best not to argue. She rubbed her throat unconsciously.

Casper moved up beside Artemis, growling lowly. He glanced at him briefly, then back at the door, waiting.

As she'd predicted, there was a knock at the door a moment later. Artemis shot her one last warning look, turning the knife in his hands, and then opened the door. From her position, the door opening towards her, Holly couldn't see who stood in the doorway, but the tension in Artemis's shoulders melted off. She saw the knife disappear up his sleeve again. "I nearly stabbed you," he said calmly, stepping aside to let the newcomer in.

Holly gasped when she saw who it was. She flashed back for a moment to a few months back, when news of the mission had leaked and she'd wondered how Artemis could possibly know, and then to just a few nights ago, hanging out with Trouble. There had only been one face she didn't recognize; one person who had followed her; one person who'd known too much; and only one person who'd pushed to be around her as much as possible. It added up… in a sick way.

"Riley?" she blurted, hardly daring to believe her eyes.

Both men turned to face her at her tone of voice. Artemis closed the door quickly and started back over to her. "Let me explain-" he started, taking her arm, but she jerked back as if scalded and spoke right over him.

"You're not a transfer at all, are you?" Holly demanded, looking between them. "You were working with him the whole time - you're _still_ working with him! How could you?" She turned from Riley to Artemis, feeling more betrayed than she cared to admit. Perhaps it had been foolish to believe he'd stopped surveillance and pulled out his informants in the LEP just because of her, but she couldn't help feeling hurt seeing it right in front of her, especially when it was someone she'd known and actually started to trust. "How could _you_? _Why_?"

"You're overreacting," Artemis told her gently. "Let me explain." He reached for her hand again, but she stepped away again, and suddenly Casper was between them, growling protectively. He stopped, frowning slightly, the look on his face unreadable.

"This is why you should have told her," Riley stated calmly, crossing his arms.

Artemis shot him a look, clearly torn between exasperation and irritation at the turn this was taking. "This is precisely why I _didn't_ tell her. If she had alerted the LEP-"

"Of course I'd had told the LEP! He's an informant!" Holly snapped, getting irritated that they were talking about her like she wasn't there.

"No, he's not. Well," he amended, "He may have started as one, but he's not now." He looked down at Casper, who was still snarling between them, although not quite as fiercely now. Clearly, the dog wasn't sure what was going on either, but had defaulted to protecting her when she had backed away from Artemis. "Calm him down so we can talk."

Holly crossed her arms firmly over her chest, still inexplicably hurt. "I rather like my dog where he is, thanks," she muttered. She knew she was probably acting childish, but she couldn't help herself.

He frowned. "Okay. Fine. It is what it is, Holly. Riley was acting under my orders, yes. He was originally an informant, I admit. I had intended to pull him when I left the country, but after I met you, Holly, I knew I couldn't leave you alone and unprotected when I left-"

"Alone and-" Holly stopped, huffing. "Artemis. I'm the daughter of a cop and a cadet myself. I'm as protected as it gets!"

"Yes, and look what good it did you!" Artemis shot back at her. "They're protection is worthless, Holly, and as are your skills when you have no idea what you're up against and have no idea anything may be coming in the first place. So I asked him to stay and keep an eye on you from afar, and alert me if anything changed."

"From afar?" Holly echoed. She looked at Riley, who was standing silently a few feet away. "Well, you must have been pretty far away up until last week, since I hadn't seen nor heard of you before then."

Riley shrugged. "You weren't supposed to. It was a stealth job for a reason. If you had been able to detect me, or had known about me following you, then there was a good likelihood anyone out to hurt you would have found out too."

Holly frowned, looking down. Artemis sighed, continuing softly. "Holly. I didn't know until today that you'd been with him when you were abducted or that he'd started making contact with you at all, else I would have gotten the information I needed from him, and I most definitely wouldn't have teased you about going on a date with him if I'd have known who it was with."

"It wasn't a date!" they both said at the same time. Riley's lips twitched up in a smirk as he looked over and met her eyes. Holly flushed, glaring at him as best she could.

"Okay. It wasn't a date. It hardly matters, I think, as I would assume you've made it perfectly clear where your loyalties lie." Artemis tried to smile comfortingly, but Holly just flinched. The statement only served to remind her of what Root had said to her when she'd started back to class, and she really didn't want to think about that right now.

"Casper," she murmured, and the dog stopped immediately, looking back at her. "Heel." She looked at Artemis, then at Riley again. "One question. If you're really working for him, why did you try to convince me to stay away from him?"

Riley just shrugged. "It seemed like the kind of thing any other potential suitor would have done, in my position. Besides, everyone deserves a fair choice."

"Yes, well, she's made hers," Artemis interrupted. "Now, why are you here, Riley? Do you have any information for me?"

Holly frowned, opening her mouth to demand to know what he meant by that when he supposedly wasn't an informant, but then quickly changing her mind and closing her mouth again. This was all a confusing, jumbled mess, but if what he was telling her was true, then she had no reason to doubt him, and Riley was only hanging around for her own protection.

Riley sighed slightly. "No. Nothing new. I just came to warn you. Short is getting irritated quickly. I don't trust him not to take matters into his own hands, and soon. Which means-"

"We need to get out of here. And soon," Artemis completed. He sighed, walking over and taking Holly's hand. "Alright. I'll bear that in mind. We're going to try to be out of here by tonight either way." He squeezed it gently and kissed the top of her head. "Come on, love. We should get packing."

"What about him?" She glanced at Riley.

"What about him?" Artemis asked, his brow furrowing slightly.

"Is he coming with us?"

The two men exchanged glances. "No," Artemis answered, after a moment of contemplation. "You don't have to stay here anymore, so feel free to "transfer" back for the time being, if you'd like. Or just pull out completely and retreat to wherever you'd prefer. Just stay within a phone calls reach, if you don't mind. I don't know how this is going to play out, but there's too many factors in play and too much going on for me to believe it's going to be smooth sailing."

Riley nodded. "Will do." He looked from Artemis to Holly, offering her a small smile. "Stay safe," he said, and then left as quickly as he had come.

Artemis sighed, walking over to lock the door behind him and returning to her quickly. He cupped her chin, looking down at her with wide, pleading blue eyes. "Are you mad at me?" he asked softly.

She looked away. "I'm more mad that you didn't tell me. It was unrealistic for me to believe you'd stop being a criminal just because of me, but… I just… hoped, I guess."

He flinched. "Holly-"

"No." She shook her head, stepping away. "You love your family, Artemis. More than me, and more than anything else in the world. And that's not a crime." She turned towards the stairs. "It's what you do because you love them that is," she whispered. "And even though I'd never fault you for that… it's mine that suffers for it." She took a deep breath. "I have to decide where my loyalties lie, Artemis. And that's something neither you or anyone else can help me with, no matter how hard you try. I just… I need some time."

She whispered the last part, almost brokenly, and disappeared up the stairs before he could find the words to respond to that.


	9. Chapter 9

9.

She went back upstairs with Casper hot on her heels, and shut herself in the guest bedroom, locking the door behind her. She didn't know whether he'd follow her immediately or not, but even still, she didn't want to have to fight with him; she just wanted time alone.

She fell heavily onto the bed, holding her head in her hands. She felt so _stupid_. She trusted Artemis, and she loved him, but this was just… too much. Not even because of anything he'd done, but because it again called her loyalties out into the open, and she still had no idea where they truly laid.

Casper jumped up on the bed next to her and wormed his way under her arm to sit on her lap, licking at her face. She sighed, straightening and pulling him close to her. She needed to sort this out, and now, before things went any further.

Some of the questions this brought up had obvious answers. She wouldn't stand by and let Artemis harm anyone - LEP or innocent - if she could help it. And she also didn't want to LEP to capture Artemis or any of the others she'd met. But after that, the questions got tricky. Would she do something illegal to help Artemis? Could she? And how much did she really trust either side? The situation with Riley was enough to make her open her eyes to the situation around her, at least more so than they had been. Yes, Artemis had informants in the LEP, but did the LEP not constantly try to get informants into his company, too? Turnabout could only be considered fair play in such a stacked game as this.

In truth, she _wanted_ to trust Artemis. She trusted him almost more than she trusted her own father. But both sides had other factors in play besides her, and that made it complicated.

Artemis and her father both loved her, she knew. But her father was so hot-headed, especially where criminals were concerned, and _especially_ when Artemis was said criminal. And even if she did trust him, he wasn't running the show at the LEP; Root was. While she believed Root cared about her too, on a level, he had a job to do first, and she was smart enough to know what would happen if she really took the wrong side. He wouldn't like it, but he'd considered her a casualty of the war on crime if he really had to. And Artemis… well, he was running the show, sure, and she certainly believed in his intelligence and his capability to hold in his anger, but his loyalties truly laid with rescuing his family. He would try to take care of her, she was sure, but she couldn't be sure that he would choose her over them, and frankly, she wouldn't blame him if he didn't.

There was a soft knock at the door. Holly looked up and sighed, swiping at her eyes. She shouldn't answer it, but… right now, events were bigger than her, and she really shouldn't resist Artemis. He was just trying to keep her safe.

As if on cue, she heard him sigh from outside. "Holly, please," he said quietly. "I know you're upset, and I understand, but...just come out soon, please. We should talk, and even if you'd rather not, we really do need to leave."

Holly sighed, looking down. Casper was looking at her with big puppy dog eyes. He whined slightly when she looked at him, his tail starting to thump slowly against the bed. She shook her head. "Whose side are you on, dog?" she muttered, getting up and going over the door.

When she opened it, Artemis was standing outside, his head resting against the wall by the door. He straightened quickly when she opened it, looking her over. Before she could say anything, he blurted, "I'm sorry."

She blinked, looking at him in surprise. "What? What for?"

"For...everything." He looked at her earnestly, taking her hand and squeezing it. "Everything that's happened to you because of me, and everything I've done or will do to you. And for the fact that you feel like I don't trust you and you can't trust me, and all the issues with your father and the LEP, and just… for all the trouble I've caused for you in general." He looked down. "I understand if you can't trust me, but-"

He cut off when she stepped up and pulled him closer, kissing him deeply. He stopped mid sentence, surprised, before starting to kiss her back. After a minute, he pulled back, looking down at her with confusion. "Holly..."

She smiled, kissing him briefly again to stop him. It took a minute for her to realize, initially, what he was doing, but that didn't stop the affection for him from welling up in her chest. He knew he'd upset her, today and times before, and the guilt was eating him alive. It was enough to make her smile and wonder again how she'd questioned his loyalty to her at all, even with the dilemmas she knew existed. "Artemis… I forgive you. For everything," she told him softly, running her hand through his hair. He inhaled softly, looking at her and leaning into her hand. "I was more upset earlier because of myself than anything you did." She looked down. "Finding out Riley was an informant doesn't make me happy, granted, but I couldn't say I was honestly surprised. What bothered me most was that again, my loyalties were being questioned out in the open, and again…. I really have no answer as to where they lie." She shrugged helplessly.

Artemis sighed, straightening and pulling her into him. "Did you figure anything out in there?" he murmured against her hair.

"Only that things are too complicated for me to give either of you proper answers." She sighed, looking up at him with her cheek pressed against his chest. "I feel loyal to both sides, at least a little. I don't want any of you to get hurt, but…"

"Holly." Artemis stopped her, taking her chin and tilting her head up to make her meet his eyes. "Listen. I don't want you to worry about that - at least, not on this side. As far as I'm concerned, you could still actually be an informant, and I don't care. I'd still protect you. And I still love you." He kissed her forehead. "I don't want you to feel like you have to pick a side or choose between me and your father. That's not fair to you, especially in the position you're in at the moment. So just…. Don't."

"Really?" She looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Of course." He smiled softly, releasing her chin and pulling her in again. "I don't want to alarm you, but… you're not going to be seeing your father again for a while anyway, so there's not really any need for you to stress over having an answer for him when it doesn't really matter at the moment. I won't keep you from talking to him, once the issue of communication is taken care of, but-"

"What issue?" Holly interrupted, frowning and leaning back slightly. "You didn't say anything about an issue before."

"I didn't want to worry you." He sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I can't and won't keep you from communicating with your family, Holly, like I told you. I will, however, have to get rid of all of the technology you have on you in favor of some safer, untraceable tech."

Holly raised an eyebrow. "And this comes from…?"

"Me, of course." He grinned his vampire smile at her, and she couldn't help smiling back, remembering his child-like excitement over the car a few months ago.

"Of course." She sighed, stepping back and running her hand through her hair. "When is that going to be taken care of? Soon?"

"Soon," he agreed. "Before we leave, which needs to be very soon." He checked his watch and frowned slightly, offering her his hand. "Come. I need to finish packing and take care of your things before Butler gets back to pick us up."

Holly took it cautiously. "Take care of my things… how?" she asked suspiciously, remembering how he'd done it last time and the subsequent several hundred dollars she'd had to shell out for a new phone after that.

His grin was answer enough. She groaned slightly, and he chuckled, squeezing her hand. "Don't worry, darling. I'll be giving you a replacement this time, and one you can keep for a very long time." Holly pouted slightly, but he ignored it, tugging her after him by her hand. "Come on," he coaxed, and she eventually gave in, letting him pull her down the hall and into his room to finish preparations.


	10. Chapter 10

10.

Around an hour later, Holly was still laying on the bed with her dog, toying with the new phone Artemis had given her and watching him finish packing. They hadn't talked much after he'd given it to her and taken her old one. He had returned to packing, and she had started setting up the new phone, only really speaking to ask him any questions she had about the device.

It was… strange, to put it mildly. It looked like a normal phone, granted, on the outside, but it was slightly larger in size than the average phone and completely black. When she tried to activate it the first time, Artemis had to take it to show her how to turn it on, and he had to unlock it for her and add her fingerprint in it to enable her to unlock it on her own. It popped up and asked for a password, but as Artemis explained to her, the password wouldn't work if it didn't register the correct fingerprint. And then when it opened, it was set up differently than a normal phone, with several apps she'd never seen or heard of before installed and running in the background of the normal ones.

Once she'd figure out just to ignore the strange apps, setting up the rest of the phone was easy. She set about transferring her pictures and contacts and was just finishing up when Artemis was.

She transferred the final number and looked up just in time to watch Artemis snap the locks closed on the final suitcase. He turned to her and smiled. "All set."

"Cool." She sat up, locking the phone and pocketing it. Casper whined slightly at being shifted, but grudgingly got off of her, and she got to her feet beside Artemis. "Are we leaving now?"

"As soon as Butler arrives, which should be shortly. We'll be on the island by evening." He smiled at her, running a hand through her hair lightly. "Are you okay with this?" he blurted suddenly.

Holly blinked, tilting her head. "Okay with what?" she asked carefully, confused. There was a million and one things he could be asking her about, and frankly, she wasn't going to argue with him about any of them. She'd decided to just trust him. She really couldn't afford not to.

Artemis sighed, cupping her face gently for a moment before dropping his hand altogether. "Leaving with me. Again." His eyes searched her face as he spoke, searching for any sign she could be lying to him. "I know it's really sudden, and it probably seems really demanding and controlling, and with how much your father hates me and all…." He trailed off, shaking his head. "I realize you may not want to. And I won't make you, if you really don't. You don't have to go, or be with me at all if you do. I can stay away, if you want, or… do whatever you want me to, really." He shrugged, looking down. "I just don't want to make you do anything you don't want to do, and I don't want you to be uncomfortable. I can give you whatever you ask, Holly, I just can't give you _up_. I care about you too much."

Holly stared at him for a long moment, then shook her head and hugged him. It suddenly occurred to her ths was the second time in as many hours that Artemis had essentially rambled his feelings out in front of her. It was sweet, and kind of cute, especially seeing how powerful and invulnerable he usually was.

Artemis froze for a moment, then relaxed against her, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing her back. She felt him press his face in her hair and exhale heavily into her and had to smile.

They didn't move for a long moment before Holly pulled back slightly, tilting her head up and cupping his cheek gently. "You know what I don't understand, Artemis?" she told him, quietly. He looked down at her with wide blue eyes and shook his head lightly, and she smiled gently, pushing herself up on her tiptoes to press her forehead against his. "I don't understand how you could ever think for a second that I don't love you or don't want to be with you in any way and yet would still be here with you and _not_ be kicking and screaming and throwing an absolute fit over all of this."

Artemis chuckled softly, putting his hand over hers and pulling it away. He kissed her palm gently and then let it drop, watching her lower her arm down to her side again. "True," he conceded, after a long minute of silence. "I just thought perhaps didn't act out or say anything because you were-…"

"That I was afraid of you?" Holly finished for him, and he nodded silently. She quirked a brow at him, not believing he was entirely serious for a moment, then burst out laughing.

Artemis frowned, pulling away from her entirely and crossing his arms. "I fail to see why that's so hysterical," he told her, trying to sound neutral, but she could hear the underlying hurt in his voice. "Aside from the fact that I'm a criminal and you've been born and raised to hate me, I _stabbed_ you, Holly. And I took you hostage, and I threatened you, and did at least a dozen more horrible things to you… and even what I haven't done to you I've done to others. I hurt people for a living and… how could you honestly love that, love _me_? I'm just… I'm a _monster_." He looked down, his voice breaking slightly on the last word.

Holly stopped laughing abruptly about halfway through, staring at him. She realized with a jolt that these were all honestly honest concerns of his, and he honestly felt that way. She blinked a few times, struggling to keep her jaw from dropping slightly. "Artemis…" She hesitated, still completely shocked at what he'd said and that he actually felt that way.

"Don't, Holly." He sank down on the edge of the bed, running his hands through his hair. "Please don't."

"Don't what?" Holly joined him on the bed quickly, taking his chin and turning his head towards her. "Don't tell you that none of that matters, and that half of it isn't true? Don't tell you that I've seen what real monsters are, and what they look and act like, and you're not one of them?" She leaned in, resting her forehead against his again. "Honestly, Artemis. I don't understand how you could even feel that way. You're way too strong and intelligent for this kind of self-doubt."

Artemis met her eyes for a moment and then shifted away, clearly uncertain and acutely uncomfortable. "Apparently not."

"Apparently." She sighed, running her hand through his hair. "Look at me, Artemis." She waited until he met her eyes again to keep going. "You're stronger than this, Arty." She purposely used the nickname that she remembered the boys had called him, trying to use it to get through to him. It seemed to work; he jolted slightly against her hand, his eyes widening with surprise. She didn't acknowledge it but for a small smile as she continued. "You are a criminal, yes. And granted, I don't always like it very much, because I have grown up being taught that that's not the way to go. And if there's another attainable way, from a personal standpoint, I would never do something illegal. But… you were desperate, and you're smart, and you had it all at your fingertips. In your situation instead of mine, I would have done it too. And frankly, I don't fault you for doing it, and I'm glad you did, because if you hadn't, we probably would never have met." Her eyes searched his face as she talked, making sure he was listening and absorbing what she was saying. "I love you the way you are, Artemis. And the fact that you're a criminal doesn't make you a monster, nor do any of the things you have done for you family." She paused. "And that… that's just it. You do it for your family. And you love me. If you were a monster, none of that would matter. Because that comes from here." She put her hand that wasn't still tangled in his hair on his chest, right over his heart. "And that is exactly what real monsters lack."

Artemis stared at her for a long moment, then nodded slowly. He put his hand over the one of hers that was still on his chest, pressing on it so she could feel his heart thumping against her hand and smiling gently. "Thank you, Holly," he murmured, so low that if she'd been any further away she wouldn't have heard it. "I needed that."

"I know." She straightened up, kissing him softly. "Now, quit being so stupid. I want my cold, powerful, intelligent, loving, utterly _perfect_ genius back." She kissed him again.

Artemis kissed her back for a long minute, then pulled back and smiled. "Consider it done."

She grinned back, leaning up with the intention to kiss him again until knock on the door startled her. She jumped and pulled back midway, looking at the door and then back at him. He just smiled and got up to answer it.

Artemis opened the door to reveal Butler outside. The manservant glanced between them briefly. "Ready?" he asked in his deep voice. If he had realized he was interrupting something, he didn't show it.

Holly hopped up. "Yep!"

Artemis chuckled, looking at her and then back at Butler. "Let me gather up the bags, and we'll be out." Butler nodded and left, and Artemis closed the door behind him. He walked over and grabbed the bags he'd packed off the floor, slinging most of them over his shoulders and one in each hand, including hers. Holly picked up Casper - the only thing left for her to carry - and went over to get the door for him. He smiled at her as he went out, and she closed the door behind them and followed him out of the hotel.

The car was waiting for them outside. Butler helped Artemis load the bags in the trunk, then held the door open for them before getting into the front seat. Holly climbed in obediently, setting Casper on the floor, and Artemis slid in next to her. He smiled and kissed her hair, pulling her into his side as they pulled away.

Holly turned and looked out the window one last time, looking from the hotel to down the street where she knew her father must be right now. It killed her to leave again without actually seeing him, but she knew it was necessary. He would try to keep her from leaving - not to mention the possibility of somebody trying to arrest Artemis. It wasn't worth it, but that didn't make her not wish it was.

Artemis seemed to sense where her mind was. He grabbed her arm gently, pulling her back down onto the seat next to him, and pulled her back into his side. "Don't dwell," he told her gently. "Please. I don't want you getting depressed on me again."

She had to smile in spite of herself. "Well, don't keep me locked away until Christmas again, and we should be fine," she told him teasingly, poking him in the ribs lightly.

He jolted and hissed, catching her hand before she could pull it away. "Christ, Holly." He rubbed his ribs with one hand, still holding her wrist with the other. "Play nice."

"Or what?" She grinned playfully at him.

Artemis rolled his eyes, but he couldn't keep a smile from growing on his face. She was just trying to brighten both their moods, and it was working. "Or… I won't play nice either." He tilted his head. "And I am certain I can be significantly meaner than you can."

Holly paused, looking at him. Her mind flashed back to their earlier conversation, and she smiled and shook her head. "I'm sure you _could_ ," she allowed, "If you wanted to be. But I doubt it."

His eyes softened, and he smiled back. "So do I." He let go of her hand. "I promise you'll be home for Christmas this time. One way or another."

"Don't say it like that. I hate when you say that. It sounds so negative." She leaned into his side. "Anyway, Christmas at the Manor was nice too. It just wasn't-..."

"Home?" he completed, and she nodded, looking down. "I know. The Manor doesn't quite feel like home anymore either. I've been there so little, and the boys aren't there, nor Mother, and Father is still just… gone." He frowned, sighing slightly. "I can't stand to be there by myself."

"Where _are_ the boys?" Holly asked, curious. He'd told her then that they usually stayed somewhere else, where he was sure they were safe, but he never said where that was.

Artemis looked over at her and smiled a little. "Somewhere far away," he allowed.

"You're not going to tell me?" She pouted slightly. It wasn't like she could or would tell anyone.

"I've no need to. You'll know soon enough." He pulled out his phone, checking the time and locking it again.

"O...kay," she held out, not quite sure what he was talking about but not going to argue with him about it either. She shrugged, putting her head on his shoulder. "But, I mean, you said you got a ransom demand, right? So your father shouldn't be gone for much longer."

"True. Assuming everything goes smoothly." He ran a hand through his hair, then looked down at her again. "I'll do my damndest to make sure it does."

"I'm sure you will." She smiled, kissing him softly and then returning her head to his shoulder. "So, how long are we stuck in here?"

"Until we get to the nearest air base for my jet and can board it." He toyed with a strand of her hair lightly.

"And how long will that take?"

"Take a wild guess." He smiled wryly at her. She stared at him blankly for a moment, obviously thinking, and he chuckled. "You've been there before. At least a few times. Looking for information about me."

Her eyes widened with realization. "The casino? But isn't that-"

"Don't tell me it's dangerous," he interrupted, and she stopped, flushing but smiling sheepishly. He bopped her nose. "We're not even going in. Straight from the car to the jet. No danger whatsoever."

Holly frowned, not looking entirely convinced. "If you say so," she conceded.

"I do." He turned back to the front and sighed. "Now, I'm sure you know we've got a bit of a ride ahead, so you may as well relax and enjoy it."

She had to smile slightly. "Am I too tense again?"

He laughed, and she could feel the rumble against her. "Perhaps. I was thinking more along the lines of a nap, but you know all you have to do is ask." He looked down at her, his blue eyes shining brightly again.

"Actually, a nap sounds good." She snuggled a little tighter into his side, and he shifted to wrap his arms around her, holding her against him. "Wake me up when we get there?"

"Always." He kissed her hair. She smiled and closed her eyes, and in minutes she was asleep against him.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello peoples! Sorry my updates have been so sporadic lately. I've been trying to catch up my AO3 to here, so I sort of paused updates her for a while, and too much has been going on for me to have enough time to write/update, so...yeah. It's just been a mess. I'd like to say it will get better, but with school starting soon, I make no promises.**

 **Also, little PSA: I've been toying with the idea of doing like a drabble series forever for my deleted/random scenes and things. I don't think it's such a good idea because they vary so much and most are very short with little context, so instead I've decided I may start using my tumblr to do that. So, if anyone is interested in seeing that, you can follow me on tumblr at capshorty.**

 **Anyway, I won't keep blabbing. Enjoy!**

11.

When they reached the casino, Holly was still asleep, curled up like a cat against Artemis's side. He sighed, shifting her gently and sliding his arms under her, carrying her bridal style into the jet.

She whimpered and squirming in his arms, but he held onto her easily, carrying her up into the passenger area and settling down on one of the benches, lowering her into his lap. Her eyes fluttered weakly. "Arty?" she croaked, her eyes bleary and unfocused still.

"Right here, darling." He kissed her hair. "I'm sorry I woke you. We're on the jet now."

"Mmkay." Holly wrapped her arms around his neck and leveraged herself up, resting her head on his shoulder. "How are you always so warm?" she murmured, her eyes fluttering against his neck.

He chuckled softly, cradling her smaller form close to him. "Warm hands, cold heart," he murmured, almost to himself.

She heard it and swatted his chest. "Don't be ridiculous." Her voice was still low and croaky with the remnants of sleep. "If I was going to believe any stereotype about you, it would be to not trust a man who could dance. And I already trust you more than I trust my own father, so it's a bit late on that spectrum."

Artemis had to chuckle softly, kissing her hair. "That makes me feel both triumphant and sad," he murmured against her. He nuzzled her hair gently. "Are you hungry? You haven't eaten in a while."

Holly yawned and shook her head, her face still buried in his neck. "You may have noticed, but I don't eat much."

"That's not exactly healthy, Holly." He frowned.

"Oh, don't you start too," she muttered. "It's not because I'm moping anymore, so…"

"You can't mope every time I'm not around," Artemis scolded her mildly, leaning back and toying with her hair. "You'll end up like my mother."

Holly closed her eyes again, enjoying the feeling. "How is she, anyway?" she asked, looking up at him for the first time.

He met her eyes and smiled ruefully, still toying with her hair. "Unwell," he admitted truthfully. "She misses my father desperately. Her condition is bad, but…" he shrugged helplessly. "There's little I can do at this point except continue visiting and checking up on her."

"Does she know who you are?" Holly asked quietly, feeling her own heart breaking for him again. She couldn't even imagine how he must feel, but with what he'd told her now and before…. She shuddered slightly at the thought.

Artemis sighed. "Sometimes, yes." He brushed her hair back from her face. "She has her days. Sometimes she's completely lucid. Other times she thinks I'm my grandfather."

"That must be terrible," she whispered, reaching up and cupping his face in her hands.

He nodded and smiled sadly, leaning into her touch. "It's okay, Holly. It's my life. And I'm trying to put it back together."

She bit her lip, looking down and then back up at him as he ran his hands up her arms, kissing her knuckles before dropping them. The sight reminded her of something else he'd said. "What about your distractions?" she asked, her voice quiet and careful.

Artemis met her eyes and shook his head ruefully, a slight flush rising to his face. "I've not taken any "distractions" since you, Holly," he admitted softly, closing his eyes. "Even when I thought I wouldn't see you again, it didn't seem right."

She flushed too, leaning forward and resting her forehead against his. She had to admit it warmed her heart, but broke it at the same time. To know he'd been loyal to her, even when he hadn't intended to see her again for who-knew how long, and possibly at the expense of his own health and sanity… "Me neither," she whispered, kissing him softly.

He chuckled breathily. "Why am I not surprised," he murmured against her lips.

Holly smiled at that and stood up, holding out her hand to him. "Let's fix that."

Artemis's expression turned slightly puzzled for a moment before clearing up. "Oh, no." He took her hand, pulling her firmly back into his lap and wrapping his arms around her waist. "I meant it when I said you're keeping that promise, darling. And I fully intend to collect on it tonight." He kissed her deeply. "I'll take more than my fill of you then," he murmured against her lips before pulling back. "Besides, I owe you for making you miss another holiday. Or rather, I missed this one with you."

Holly frowned slightly, tilting her head up at him. "What holiday?" she asked, genuinely unsure.

Artemis chuckled, running his thumb down her jawline. "Valentine's Day, of course. Your birthday. Which in my book is a double offense."

"Oh." She blinked and flushed, slightly surprised that he even knew that. Honestly, this Valentine's Day had went by the same as any other, and she hadn't really paid much attention to it. She got a few birthday wishes from instructors and other people around her, a card and a phone call from her parents, and Trouble had brought her candy, a stuffed bear, and a new phone case - equal parts Valentine's Day and birthday gifts. This year, her father and Trouble had been working late, and her mother was sick, so they hadn't even gone out to dinner that week like they normally would have. It was all around uneventful, but she didn't mind. That was the way she liked it.

"Don't make a big fuss about it," Holly told him, frowning. "I don't-"

"I'm sure you are adverse to said fuss," Artemis chuckled, kissing the frown off her face. "But you well know that I will do as I please. Besides, if it's only between the two of us, it's not a mighty big fuss."

She pouted playfully at him. "You're impossible. Do we have to?"

"Yes, we have to. Because I've already had it set up." He bopped her on the nose. "Now, no more of this talk. Just relax until we get there." He held her close to him.

Holly sighed, settling into him. "Fine. If you insist." She really didn't want to argue with him. Besides, maybe it would be nice to have a real celebration for a change, even if it were private. That sounds like the type of thing she just might enjoy.

The rest of the flight was fairly silent. Holly stayed curled up on his lap, looking out the window and amusing herself by finding shapes in the clouds. At one point she tried to look up and point some of them out to Artemis, but his eyes were closed, his head resting against the wall. She wasn't sure if he was asleep or not, so she left him alone.

Another hour or so passed this way. Holly must have dozed off eventually too, and only realized it when she was startled awake by the movements and sounds of the jet as they went in for landing.

She looked up at Artemis to see him peeling his eyes open blearily as well. He blinked down at her and yawned hugely. "Are we here?" Holly asked him.

He smiled tiredly and nodded. "Mhm. Come on." He pushed her off his lap and stood up, stretching like a cat. Holly watched with amusement, waiting until he finished before following him off the jet.

She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but this wasn't it. Artemis had told her it was an island that they were going to, but for some reason she had been picturing… well, she hadn't really attempted to picture anything, but stepping out onto a sandy beach with a full view of the ocean in front of her was not what she had expected, at least.

The jet had dropped them off right at the coast of the island. Straight in front of her, she could see the ocean stretching on for seemingly endless miles. When the jet lifted up, she saw that the beach continued up for several miles before melding into grass and forestry. She could see a few houses and smaller buildings spotting the island, but they seemed to be miles apart, specks against the horizon.

Artemis smiled at her when she turned around and he saw her stunned expression. "You like it?" he asked, his blue eyes wide and hopeful.

Holly couldn't help but grin. "Like it? Are you kidding me?" She walked over and kissed him deeply. "It's beautiful here," she murmured. "I love it."

Artemis smiled, pulling her close and nuzzling her cheek. "Good." Then he pulled back, taking her hand. "Come on. There's some people you need to see."

"People?" Holly repeated, confused. She followed Artemis along the shoreline, letting him tug her along and looking around. It really was beautiful scenery. "Like who?"

Artemis just chuckled in answer, pulling her along, apparently fixated on something across the beach.

After a few minutes, a large house started to come into view and she suddenly made out two little specks that appeared to be growing rapidly in size. It took a minute for her to realize what they were, but when she did a huge grin split her face.

"Arty! Holly!" Two twin boys slammed into them in simultaneous tackle-hugs, chirruping away in little voices that mingled so similarly she honestly wasn't sure which was which.

"Boys!" Holly laughed, kneeling to their height and hugging Myles, who was the one who had hugged her first.

"Holly!" Beckett detached himself from his brother's leg to hug her, throwing his little arms around her neck. "I missed you!"

"You did?" She couldn't help but blink slightly in surprise. She'd only met the twins once, when she'd stayed at the Manor for Christmas this past year.

He pulled back, seeming perplexed at her tone. "Of course we did. You're family."

"Oh. Oh." Holly's eyes widened slightly in surprise, but she couldn't help but smile. "I guess so." She ruffled his hair. "I missed you guys too."

Beckett smiled, straightening and grabbing her hand. "Come on!" He started pulling her towards the house. "Let's go! Everyone's waiting for you guys!"

"Everyone?" Holly repeated, frowning slightly. She turned and looked back at Artemis quizzically, but he just grinned shamelessly at her, scooping up Myles and following them at a slower pace.

Beckett dragged her to the door of the large house and threw it open, pulling her in. Holly followed him with no resistance. The house was just as large on the inside as it looked on the outside, and if the boy wasn't guiding her through she'd have certainly gotten lost in the maze of doorways and hallways.

Finally, he pulled her into a large, open dining room. It was massive. A huge dining table with at least ten chairs dominated the center of the room, already set and laden down with dishes across the whole surface. The smell made her stomach rumble, and she blinked in surprise at the sound. She'd told Artemis that she wasn't hungry, and she really hadn't even realized she was hungry until she smelled the food.

She barely had a moment to process this before someone was on top of her again, squealing and pulling her into a bone-crushing hug. She gasped and winced, turning and patting the girl's back briefly before she released her. "Juliet!"

"Holly!" Juliet stepped back and grinned, looking her over. "How are you? How's Casper? Did you go back to school? Did they treat you okay? Happy Birthday!"

"Breathe, Juliet." Artemis appeared in the doorway, still carrying Myles with one arm. He clasped the girl on the shoulder and set Myles down, taking his place at Holly's side and kissing her hair. "You're overwhelming her."

Holly stared at the girl, floored momentarily by her enthusiasm and the onslaught of questions. Juliet seemed to realize this and smiled sheepishly, and after a moment, Holly smiled back. "Thanks," she managed.

Juliet seemed satisfied with this and turned to Artemis. "The others will be here shortly. There was a few issues on the way."

"Nothing big, I hope," Artemis murmured, frowning slightly.

"I don't know. He wouldn't say much over the phone." Juliet shrugged, moving back to the stove and stirring something on it.

Artemis nodded, looking contemplative. "Well, that's alright. We won't start without them." He took Holly's hand, pulling her to the end of the table. He pulled her chair out for her, then sat down next to her and smiled. "Excited?"

"Should I be?" Holly quirked a brow at him, poking him in the ribs lightly. "You promised me that we were going to do something small, and that there wouldn't be a big fuss."

"This is small. And we will have something even smaller tonight. Just the two of us, then." He squeezed her hand and smirked at her. "Besides, I acknowledged that you were adverse to a big fuss, but I never promised anything. Precisely because this was already set up." He kissed her cheek.

Holly sighed. "I… suppose so." She sat back, shaking her head, but unable to squash the small smile from growing onto her face.

Artemis chuckled, pulling her into his side and looking around. The twins were running around wildly still, spouting off whatever randomness popped into their heads, and Casper had followed them in and was currently sniffing around for any scraps that may have somehow already been dropped.

After a few minutes, Artemis turned in his seat to face Juliet, who was still busying herself around the stove. "Did he give you an ETA?" he asked.

Juliet shrugged. "No. He never does."

Artemis sighed and nodded, getting up. "Come on," he told Holly, holding his hand out to her. "I'll take you to our villa so we can get settled in while we're waiting."

"Okay." She nodded and took his hand, letting him pull her up to him. She smiled at Juliet, and the other girl smiled back as Artemis pulled her out.

He led her back outside of the house, pulling her into his side and kissing her hair. "Do you like it here?" he murmured.

Holly looked up at him and smiled. "I love it already, Artemis. Thank you."

He chuckled. "I wouldn't thank me yet, but… of course you're welcome. You're always welcome." He led her around the back of the house, toward a small garage, and she had to stop and smile in surprise and disbelief when he lifted the door and she saw what was inside. There were a variety of motor vehicles, but most prominently…

"Really? You have motorcycles here too?" she asked, grinning a little despite herself.

He approached a sleek black model with blue flames sweeping up the sides and kicked up the kickstand, wheeling it out. "I have everything, in case you haven't noticed." He paused. "To be fair, this is more of a moped-type model. Smaller, quieter, less powerful. But enough to get us across the island without walking for hours on end." He slid onto it smoothly, motioning her over.

Holly couldn't help but smile as she climbed on behind him and wrapped her arms around him. "You...are unbelievable."

"If you want to walk the eight miles to our villa…" he made a sweeping motion with his arm.

"Oh no. I'll pass." She tightened her grip around his torso. His chuckled rumbled through her whole body as he turned the key and started the bike.

"Off we go then." He pushed off and hit the gas, speeding them off along the beach.

It took about fifteen minutes to make it across the island at the rate they were going. Holly just leaned into him and held on, watching the scenery flit by. By the time their residence came into view, they'd put the forest between them and the big house they'd come from.

Artemis coasted to a stop at the steps of their villa and shut off the bike. Holly's jaw dropped a little when she got a good look at it. "You call this a villa?" she asked in awe as they slid off the bike.

He shrugged, looking the house over. It was huge, white, and grand - like something out of a fairy tale. It looked more like a mansion than a villa. Although it wasn't even a quarter of the size of the manor, it was bigger and grander than anything Holly had ever dreamed of living in. "Yes. That's what it is."

"Villa tends to imply little temporary vacation homes," Holly told him. "Not mini-mansions."

"Well, welcome to the Fowl family. You'd better get used to the grandeur, because this is about as mild as I tend to let it get. When I have the choice, anyway." He shrugged again, taking her hand. "Come on. Let's go in."

Still mildly shocked, she let him take her hand and pull her up the steps to the door. Inside was sparsely but tastefully decorated, all hardwood floors and classy decor. Artemis smirked at her over his shoulder, tugging her from the entryway into the main living area.

The whole wall opposite them, facing the beach, was glass from floor to ceiling. She hadn't been able to tell before beach they'd come in from the other side. "Whoa…" she murmured, approaching it. "You like your panorama views, don't you?"

"I take inspiration in the beauty of things. Sue me." He shrugged, going over to a mini fridge and grabbing himself a water. "Before you, all I had was nature, so yes. Lots of glass walls and panoramas."

It took a minute for the compliment to register, then she flushed and turned away. "Oh, ha-ha. You're so funny."

"It's true." He walked up behind her, sliding an arm around her shoulders and pulling her in. "Whether you believe it or not. I quite enjoy taking something superficial and letting it inspire me into thinking and creating and realizing something...well, not superficial." He looked down at her.

Holly sighed a little, tearing her gaze away from the shoreline to look up at him. He smiled gently at her and leaned down to kiss her softly.

After a moment, she pulled back, and her eyes landed on something across the room. A memory sparked in the back of her mind - that certain something had been at his hotel in a variation before as well, and this time it peaked her interest. "Do you play?" she asked.

"Hm?" He turned slightly, following her gaze to the grand piano across the room. "Oh. Yes, sometimes. Just another thing I can occasionally take inspiration in."

"Will you play for me?" She tugged his arm, and he smiled.

"Of course. Here." He took her hand, pulling her over to it and settling them both on the bench. "What shall I play? Something new? Classic? Original?" His fingers ghosted over the keys.

"You write music too?" Would she ever stop being surprised at this stuff? She probably shouldn't be, but she was.

"Occasionally." He shrugged. "I'm no Mozart, I suppose, but…"

"Oh, shush and play something for me." She leaned into his side.

He smiled, starting to play a soft melody, very lightly, tenderly, losing himself in his work. Holly listened, mesmerized as soon as he started to play. He really was very good, and it was obvious the piece was one of his own. It sounded like a lullaby, almost, but with a darker tone in places.

When he finished, he took his hands off the piano and looked down at her. She smiled up at him. "That was beautiful, Arty. Where did that come from?"

"It's a variation of a lullaby tune my mother used to sing to me when I was younger. I couldn't remember more than a few words of it, but I remembered some of the tune, and…" he shrugged, playing the first few notes for her again. "From there I just made it up."

Holly smiled, feeling a little sad at the mention of his mother again. She still couldn't even imagine being in that situation with her mother - or even his situation with his father. It was just… outrageous to her. She sighed, leaning up and kissing him deeply.

He seemed surprised, but responded, wrapping his arms around her slowly. She leaned heavily into him, sliding onto his lap and deepening the kiss, her tongue sliding across his.

He groaned a little, pulling back. "Holly…"

She panted heavily, leaning towards him again. Desire hit, fast and sudden, and she wanted him right then. It had just been too long - for both of them - and she suddenly found herself unable to wait for tonight. "Artemis-"

He put his hand on her chest, stopping her. "We have time, Holly. I said tonight-"

"I'll be tired after dinner tonight, and if we have time, why not?" Holly leaned into him, running her hands through his hair. "It seems like dinner will be a while since we're waiting on people anyway, and I just… Please, Arty. It's been so long and I was so scared I'd lost you." She looked down.

Artemis looked at her and sighed, slowly catching his breath. "You're a manipulative little creature, you know that?" He stood up, scooping her up suddenly and kissing her deeply.

Holly squealed a little at the sudden shift, but it melted into a groan when he kissed her again. "Gods, Artemis, I…"

"I know." He carried her down the hall and up the stairs, opening the door to the Master bedroom and taking her inside. He flicked off one of the lights on the way past, leaving the wall of glass balcony doors as the only major light source in the room, and tossed her onto the bed.

Holly yelped slightly at being tossed, but he was crawling over her almost as soon as she landed. He slid his hands up her shirt, his fingers finding the scar on her side again. She batted it away, peeling her shirt off.

Artemis looked down at the scar and froze, biting his lip. Holly reached out and took his chin, bringing his face to hers, trying to snap him out of it. "It doesn't bother me anymore," she promised softly. "Just… don't think about it. Eyes elsewhere." She kissed him deeply.

He kissed her back for a moment, then pulled away gently, sighing a little. He brushed his fingers over it lightly. "I know it doesn't. But it bothers me." He glanced at her for a moment, then away again sitting up slowly. "Because I did it. It's my fault. Everything is."

Holly shook her head. "Don't be ridiculous, Artemis-"

"I'm not. Tell me one thing about this whole scenario that isn't my fault." He turned and met her eyes again, daring her.

She stopped, swallowing thickly. In her mind, none of it was directly his fault, but he'd never see it that way. She sighed, sitting up too and reaching for him. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down and flipping them so she was leaning over him. "I can't convince you it's not, Artemis. But I don't believe it. And even if it were, I don't blame you for it." She ran her fingers through his hair. "Please, Arty. We talked about this, and I can't stand to see you blaming yourself all the time. Why can't you just… put your insecurities to the side for a while and show me how much you missed me? Unless…" she leaned back a little. "You didn't miss me?"

He sighed, reaching up and pulling her down next to him. "Of course I missed you, you silly girl. You mean the world to me." He pulled her against him, kissing her hair. "But I missed more than just your body. And I don't...this feels so forced, Holly. Less like you want me and more like you're just trying to make me happy. And that's not what I want from you. You - just you, being you, just being around you - makes me happy. My family makes me happy. I promise you, regardless of my own insecurities, that's all I need." He rested his forehead against hers.

Holly nodded against him, looking down. "So… you don't want me?" she clarified.

He groaned a little, pulling her forcefully against him so she could feel the answer. "You can't be serious. Of course I do. I want you more than almost anything else in this world, but...not like this." He tilted her head up, brushing her hair back from her face. "Let's just… shelve this for tonight. Get dressed, go have dinner with our family and friends, and then… tomorrow, we can talk about all this again. Alright?"

Holly sighed and nodded. She couldn't help feeling a bit dejected, even if he had good reasons and was likely right. She had insecurities of her own, too, she supposed, but now wasn't the time to push for him to right them. He tended to assuage her naturally anyway, without even meaning to. "Alright," she relented.

"Thank you." He kissed her softly, then got up, pulling her with him. He grabbed her shirt and pulled it over her head again, smiling ruefully at her as she stuck her arms back through the sleeves. "Tomorrow," he promised. "Now, let's finish unpacking and head back to the house, okay?"

She sighed and nodded. "Fine," she agreed. "But…" she stepped up and put her arms around his neck, pulling his head down so she could speak in his ear. "Tomorrow better be worth it."

He chuckled, pulling back to kiss her before straightening completely. "It will be," he promised, smiling back at her and holding out his hand for her to take. "Now let's go get this night over with, hm?"

She smiled back and nodded in agreement, letting him take her hand and lead her out of the room again.


	12. Chapter 12

12.

After about an hour or so spent unpacking and getting acquainted with the so-called villa, they rode the bike back over to the big house across the island.

"Why is everything so far apart?" Holly asked, when they stopped in front of the house and got off the bike again.

Artemis shrugged, propping it up in the garage and closing the door again. "Everything is spread out so that we can all have a modem of privacy. Anyways, the island is so big, cramming everything together just seems stupid, doesn't it?"

"I guess." She shrugged too, not entirely convinced by this argument but so in awe of everything around her still that she really didn't care about the answer. He just smiled, taking her hand and leading her back inside again.

The smell of food hit her again as soon as they entered, and she realized she still hadn't eaten anything. Her stomach growled almost immediately as the scent hit her.

Artemis glanced at her with a bemused smirk. "Still not hungry, dear?"

She flushed and shook her head. "Oh, hush. Can we eat yet?"

"I don't think so. Give it a bit." He turned off the path to the dining room and went into a small playroom off the main hallway. Holly followed him in and saw the boys inside, sitting in the middle of the floor and engrossed in fingerpainting. Casper was circling around them, inspecting them and their pictures curiously, paint already all over him. It appeared as though he'd created his own picture in pawprints by walking all across one of the big sheets, and like he'd dipped his muzzle in paint a few times. His back was absolutely plastered with multicolored handprints.

"Oh, boys," Artemis sighed. "As soon as Juliet leaves you alone for two seconds… geez…" he went inside and knelt beside them, clearly exasperated but not upset. Holly followed, kneeling on the other side of Beckett, as Artemis had taken the spot between them. "What are you making?" he asked at last.

"I made Casper," Myles piped up, showing them his picture. It was a pretty accurate depiction of how the dog looked currently, multicolored all over with barely any white showing through. Holly giggled a little.

"Very good, Myles," Artemis told him, smiling a little. "What did you make, Beckett?"

"I painted our family!" Beckett told them, holding up his picture proudly.

They both leaned over and studied it. It appeared to be of the dining room they'd been in earlier. A mass of man that could only be Butler was by the door, seemingly guarding it. A blonde girl - Juliet - was by what was clearly supposed to be the stove, cooking, and a little hairy man - Mulch - was at the fridge, apparently rummaging through it. Myles and Beckett both sat at the table, and at the head of the table…

"Beckett, you know Mother doesn't have red hair," Artemis teased his brother mildly, poking him lightly. "She has blond hair like yours."

"That's not Mom!" Beckett protested, clearly indignant. "That's you and Holly!"

Artemis stopped and frowned, surprised. "Where's Mother and Father?"

Beckett shrugged, looking down and putting the picture down again so he could continue to paint. "They're never around. It's like they're not part of the family," he murmured, so low she almost missed it.

"Beckett…" Artemis sighed, clearly a little taken aback. He put his arms around his brothers' shoulders, pulling them into his sides. "You know Mother and Father aren't not around by choice. Mother is sick, and Father…" he sighed again and trailed off, looking conflicted. "Their being gone is just… temporary. I'll have them both back soon, I promise. Then we can all be a family again." He squeezed them both and kissed their hair, then let them go. "Now, go get cleaned up, okay? It's almost time for dinner."

"Okay." The boys both got up and left, carefully using their elbows to open the door and get out.

Artemis sighed, not moving for a long moment after they left. He stared at the picture, clearly not really seeing it, but something else, far off. Holly sighed, joining him and wrapping her arms around him.

He didn't seem to notice for a long moment, then finally moved as if coming from a trance and pulled her in. He pressed his face in her hair, taking a deep breath.

"I'm sorry," Holly murmured.

"Don't be." He let her go and stood up, pulling her with him. "Let's just… go to dinner."

Holly nodded, letting him lead her back out into the hallway. Her heart ached for him. She could even imagine having that conversation, with anyone, really. It was heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time, and the thought came to her again that she couldn't even imagine what he or even the boys must be going through. Her having to be away from her family for a little while was nothing in comparison.

As they neared the kitchen again, she started to hear something. It took her a minute to realize the dull hum in the background was voices, speaking in hushed, rapid undertones.

Artemis seemed to hear it too. He glanced at her once, briefly, frowning, then let go of her hand. She sensed that oh-so-subtle change in his demeanor as he straightened a little and marched forward toward the door, shifting from the man she loved to the criminal in charge.

He stalked to the door of the kitchen and threw it open, then stopped dead. Holly stopped a few feet behind him, unable to see what he was looking at. "Artemis?" she asked, but he ignored her.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded. But then he continued, not even giving whoever he was talking to a chance to respond. "I told you you could disappear, not that you could come here."

Holly jolted a little, her head spinning. There was only one person she could remember him saying that to, and… She shook her head, pushing herself under Artemis's arm so she could see. "Riley?" she murmured, more to herself than anyone else.

His eyes flicked to her for a second, then back to Artemis. "I didn't have much of a choice."

"Oh, really?" Artemis's voice was cool, but not exactly cold, sounding only about half-interested. Almost like how he'd talked to her when he'd pulled her into his office to bust her. But with her, while he'd been cool still, he'd actually sounded interested, and honestly amused by her more than anything. With Riley, there was no hint of amusement, just irritation. "And why is that?"

Riley opened his mouth to answer, but someone else cut in. Mulch popped out suddenly from behind the fridge door, a carton of milk in each hand. Holly blinked, surprised, but Artemis seemed unfazed. "He's not lying, Artemis," the dwarf man told him, sighing heavily. "He actually saved me from a tough situation. Julius-.."

"Is he on to you?" Artemis interrupted, raising an eyebrow.

Mulch snorted a little. "I don't think "on to us" quite covers it. We're busted, big time. Riley and I both. But…" he looked at Riley for a moment. "If he hadn't been there, I'd have been toast. He got me back to the jet where Butler was waiting, and… well, what was I supposed to do with him then?"

Artemis was silent for a long moment, looking back and forth between the two men silently until Riley heaved a sigh and spoke. "Look, believe me, I've gotten the message. I'm aware you don't want me here, and I wouldn't have intruded if it weren't an emergency. But we needed to get out of there. Our covers are blown wide open. There's no going back for either of us." He shook his head. "I'll go catch Butler before he gets here to take me out."

"Where is Butler?" Artemis asked.

"Parking the jet for good, last we heard," Riley answered with a shrug. "I'll just catch him before he does so he can take me home."

Holly glanced at Artemis, biting her lip. She was irritated with both of them earlier, granted, but… he wouldn't really send Riley away, would he? What reason did he have to? It occurred to her he treated everyone else almost like family, but he was more distant with Riley. Why?

Artemis didn't look at her, the gears in his head clearly spinning. He closed his eyes for a moment and heaved a sigh. "No. It's fine." He paused, opening his eyes and fixing him with a cool, calculating look. "You can stay, for now, since this is by all rights my fault. But don't make me change my mind."

Riley nodded silently, and she felt Artemis shift almost imperceptibly beside her, not quite reverting completely but relaxing just slightly. He looked down at her and smiled a little, pulling her into his side. "Come on. Let's eat."

"What about Butler?" she asked, letting him lead her to the table.

"He'll be here shortly." He pulled her chair out for her and then settled in beside her, lacing his fingers through hers and giving her hand a slight squeeze.

Everyone was following their lead and settling in at the table, and Holly glanced around, lowering her voice a little. "Why are you so cold with Riley?" she asked him, quietly, consciously lowering her voice so he couldn't hear them from a few chairs away.

Artemis frowned a little and waved her off. "Later," he whispered, and she nodded, letting it drop as the twins finally came barreling in, Butler following close behind. Casper ran in a half-second later, hot on their heels, and immediately disappeared under the table to wait for scraps.

As everyone settled in and loaded their plates, she could sense the tension slowly melting from the room, even with Riley's unexpected presence. Everyone just seemed so… comfortable with each other. This was a group of friends, so close they were practically family; not a table of employees with their boss. Everyone still automatically deferred to Artemis, but there was respect, a feeling of contentment and something else she couldn't quite describe lurking under the surface.

It was funny how a group of criminals could know each other better and be closer than a police team, she thought to herself, thinking of her father and Root. No wonder Riley had infiltrated them so quickly and easily.

She pushed away the thought as she started eating, side conversations starting to break out among all of them around the table. Before long she was sucked into it. Meaningless side conversations and small talk overtook everyone, even her, and she felt herself and Artemis both relaxing as the meal went on.

"How's your side, Holly?" Juliet blurted suddenly, turning to her and asking the question out of nowhere. All eyes turned to her, and she forced a small smile even as she felt Artemis stiffen beside her.

"Oh. It's fine, thanks," she murmured, hoping to put an end to that line of conversation.

"What happened to your side?" Beckett asked curiously from a few seats away, cocking his head.

She glanced at Artemis, who looked down, his lips pressed into a thin line. The whole table was silent, as if everyone was holding their breath, waiting on her answer. Her mind flashed back to the scene in the playroom earlier, and it occurred to her that she had no idea how much the boys actually _knew_. "Nothing," she said at last. "Nothing I didn't bring on myself, anyway. And it's fine now." She smiled reassuringly at him. Seeming sated, he went back to his food, and as one it seemed like everyone relaxed again, breathing out silently.

The rest of the meal went by quickly. Artemis finished long before her, but sat quietly, waiting patiently for her to finish. She could sense him brooding in his own thoughts and sighed as she finished, pushing her plate away. Artemis was on his feet in an instant. "Ready?"

"Yeah." She sighed a little, letting him pull her to her feet.

"Good." He pulled her close to him, then looked over everyone again. "Boys, be good. Everyone, goodnight." He nodded to everyone, then pulled Holly out of the room. Casper padded out behind them without being called.

Only after they were dismounting the bike back at their villa did she dare ask him again. She set Casper inside the door and kicked off her shoes, shutting it behind her. "Artemis?"

He'd flopped on the couch, watching the dog silently. She frowned a little, looking at him with concern. "Artemis," she repeated, and this time he looked up.

"Hm? Sorry. I was...thinking." His voice was soft and hoarse.

Holly leaned into him, holding him tightly. "Don't, Arty. Please don't stress. Just… tell me why you don't like Riley." It was a question and a plea.

"He likes you," Artemis sighed, squeezing her a little. "I thought...the date thing was a joke, but still, maybe after being with someone normal… him or someone else... then maybe-"

"I haven't and I won't be," she said firmly. "I love you, Artemis. That's it. No changing my mind. And if you changed yours…"

"Never," he blurted immediately.

She smiled. "Good. Because I don't know what I'd do then."

"Me neither," he admitted. Then he sighed, kissing her head. "Casper needs a bath," he murmured into her hair, obviously trying to change the subject.

She sighed. "I know. But being as how most of the paint is dry… I may just let it wait until the morning." She bit her lip and looked up at him again. "Is that really the only reason?"

Artemis sighed and pulled away, getting up. "Holly… it's a two way playing field here. You have to understand that. I can't ensure that he's truly working for me the same way your father couldn't force you not to turn on the LEP."

Holly frowned. "Is that how everyone sees it? That I turned on them?" She'd never thought of it that way. She tried consciously not to, anyway. But maybe…

"No, no." Artemis turned back to her, running his hands through his hair. "I'm not… that's not what I meant. You made the best of the situation you were in, Holly, and anyone who faults your for that can take it up with me. But Riley has options. I don't have him cornered in the same way I did you. He has his own connections too, and-"

"Cornered? Is that what you think? Really?" She stood up. On one hand, she knew he didn't really mean any of it the way that it had sounded, and she was the one who asked. On the other, the thought that his worries of her were brought on by the fact that she could turn on him and had only played him to survive stung a lot more than she cared to admit. "Is that what all this insecurity really is? You don't seriously think that _I_ used _you_."

Artemis stopped in place at her tone, rubbing his face. "That's not what I meant, Holly. You know it."

"But isn't it? That's what you're really worried about. Not you being a monster, but about me faking it." The fact that he could harbor that doubt even a little bit was enough to make her feel sick.

He exhaled deeply, coming over to her and taking her hands. "Holly. Even if I believed that, I already told you it doesn't matter to me. All that matters right now is keeping you safe. Even if I hated you, I would still protect you from something that I caused you to be in danger from."

It just all sounded like the wrong thing to say. The inneundos her brain was now producing with each supposed-to-be reassurance didn't help. "Right," she murmured, numbly, her mind suddenly spinning with worries. "I… okay." She shook her head. "On second thought, I think I will give Casper a bath. Now." She started for the stairs, the pup hot on her heels.

"Holly-" Artemis started, his frustration evident.

She paused for a second, looking back down at him from the stairs and taking a breath. "Just…. Don't," she told him, and then went the rest of the way up to the bathroom with her dog and locked the door behind her.


	13. Chapter 13

**So... I have little excuse for my lack of updates. Senior year is eating me alive, if it's relatable for anyone enough that they care. That's the best I've got for you right now. Hopefully, the second half of the school year will be better, but at worst I go on break on the 12th to the first week of January and hopefully I will get some work done then. In the meantime, no promises on updates.**

 **Anyway... enough of me being lousy. Please enjoy the story!**

13.

Holly sighed to herself as she locked the door and stepped away from it. She just… needed some time. Alone. And she really needed to think some things through. Talking it through to someone might help her, but… who?

Talking to Artemis wasn't going to do anything for her, not now, not like this. And her father wasn't a viable option. The moment she expressed any kind of discontent with Artemis or worry while she was with him, he'd use it as an excuse to rally more forces to find her, and certainly it would only make him hate him more. Trouble would report anything she said, Riley couldn't be trusted from either side, Root was just too awkward, she had no way to contact Butler or Juliet…

It seemed like she only had one real ally left.

She took out the phone Artemis had gave her and set it on the counter as she started the water and plunked her oversized pup into the tub. With him splashing around in the water, she put the lid down and settled on the edge of the toilet, watching him as she picked up the phone again to call the one person left in the world she was certain she could trust.

The phone rang a few times with no answer, and she felt herself holding her breath. If she didn't answer…

But on the last ring, just before it went to voicemail, someone finally picked up and a voice came through the other end. "Hello?"

Holly exhaled deeply. "Mom?"

"Holly." She sounded both relieved and exasperated. "What's going on? Where are you?"

She hesitated. "Is Dad there?"

"Of course not. He's at the station putting every waking minute into finding you. And he's refusing to tell me anything in the meantime, so as not to "worry" me."

Holly sighed. "Of course he is. I'm not lost, Mom. I'm safe. I don't know where I am, really, but…"

"You're with him, aren't you?" There was no room for argument in her voice, and she knew it wasn't really a question.

She looked down. "Yes. And I just… I love him, Mom. But I don't know what to do." And she told her everything that had happened since she went out with Riley that night at the academy.

There was no need to tell her anything more than that, as she already knew the rest. She had promised her mother that she would tell her everything after she got home from Paris, and as soon as her father had started back to work on a regular schedule, she had. She knew everything, from getting busted to where Casper really came from to what happened to her stuff to her relationship with the mysterious Fowl. She had also already expressed her doubts, but now she couldn't keep them from coming back. The fact that they both had their doubts and worries seemed to express that both of their feelings and motives were genuine, but she just couldn't be sure, and she hated it.

Her mother was silent for a long moment when she finished. "Why did you call me, Holly?" she finally asked, so softly she almost missed it.

Holly faltered, unsure how to respond. "I… don't know," she finally admitted, lowering her voice unconsciously as well. "I just… I needed someone to talk to. Someone to tell. And I didn't know who else to call." She looked down. "You're the only one I thought might understand and not run back to Dad."

Coral laughed softly. "Of course I do, and you know I wouldn't. But I can't help you, Holly. Not really. Not with this. If you love him, and you really think he loves you, then you have to trust him."

"I want to trust him! But he doesn't seem like he wants to trust me, and everything is such a big secret, and… I just... " she faltered again. "What if he brought me here to keep me out of the way? Or as collateral? What if he really thinks I'm still feeding them information?"

"Obviously, he doesn't care if he does, or this call wouldn't be happening," her mother told her. "Think about it, Holly. Why would he give you open lines of communication - purposely secure from the LEP - if he didn't trust you?"

"What if it's because I'm here and it's secure enough they can't track me and I can't actually do any damage? What if he's still feeding me fake information and that's why it doesn't matter? Although they hardly tell me anything anyway, so that's almost pointless…" she trailed off, then shook her head. "He thinks I played him to survive. What if he's playing me now?"

Coral paused again, then sighed a little. "If that's really how you feel, what you think, then the best I can tell you is to find some allies on the inside. Someone you're sure you can trust. It might take time, but I'm sure you can worm your way into someone's heart enough to gain some kind of protection around there."

"Even with someone I've betrayed before?" she murmured, a pang of guilt hitting her as she considered the people in Artemis's inner circle. Butler, Mulch, Juliet… they all knew her history and where she'd come from. They helped Artemis bust her the last time.

"Is there anyone that you haven't?" Coral asked, and Holly had to flinch at the double meaning in the question even though she knew her mother didn't mean it that way. And yet…

"There might be someone," Holly answered, slowly, as a thought occurred to her. She bit her lip. "Listen, I should go, but… thanks, Mom."

"Of course," she answered, and she could picture her mother's soft, sad smile on the other end. "I love you, but I should go too. But, if you really want to know my opinion...honestly, Holly… I don't think you have anything to worry about. Artemis didn't seem like that kind of person to me. So just… try to talk things through with him and figure it out and keep your father's paranoia and fiery temper in check."

"I know, I'll try, but- wait, what?" Holly blurted, startled, stopping halfway when she realized what she'd actually said, but by then her mother was gone. She lowered the phone and stared at the blinking screen blankly. It seemed like there was some things her mother wasn't telling her, too.

Casper whined, sensing her inner turmoil. He laid his wet head on her knee, looking up at her with big puppy dog eyes. She sighed, putting the phone down and petting his head.

"Come on. Let's get you clean," she murmured, getting down by the tub and squirting some soap in her hands.

After vigorously washing and drying her pup, she got up, staring at the door for a few minutes before finally reaching out and unlocking it. She couldn't stay in the bathroom forever. She had to face Artemis eventually.

She did not intend for that "eventually" to be as soon as she opened the door. He was leaving heavily against the wall outside, his gaze far off. Clearly, he'd been listening to the conversation with her mother - or at least trying to - and had gotten lost in thought after she'd hung up.

His eyes snapped to her when the door opened. "Holly-"

"Don't. I don't want to do this right now." Holly watched Casper walk out into the hall and shake himself off, then scamper off toward the bedroom. She followed him silently. Artemis tried to catch her arm, but she slipped through his grasp, going into the bedroom and shutting the door behind her. She waited for Artemis to try to follow, to keep pushing, but the door never opened.

She sighed, falling back onto the bed and staring at the ceiling. She couldn't believe he'd have resorted to eavesdropping - but then, hadn't he obviously always spied on her? She'd just never been able to see it before. It had always been through other people she didn't know, or technology.

She closed her eyes, covering her face with her hands. This was all so high stakes and convoluted. If only she didn't have to worry about this so much! But the ramifications if she trusted him wrongly were too huge to comprehend.

At least she hadn't been lying to her mother when she said there might be someone here she was pretty sure she could trust. Now she just had to find a time and a way to visit them without Artemis finding out or insisting on accompanying her.

But, she reflected as she laid there, that was a problem for the morning. All of this was. There was nothing she could do about any of it right now.

So she did the only thing she could, and curled up on the bed with her dog and went to sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

**So... I was hoping the second half of the school year would be better, but clearly it hasn't been. That said, almost six months between updates is unacceptable, even for me, so I will try to do better. :)**

 **As a sidenote, if I have any Throne of Glass fans here, I'm working on a MASSIVE post KOA fic and some AU things for that, if anyone is interested. There's a survey floating around on my tumblr if anyone is. :)**

14.

When she woke up the next morning, the house was eerily silent. Even Casper, who normally snored in his sleep, seemed to have decided it was safer not to and was somehow simply letting out barely audible whistles with each breath. She sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes and yawning a bit. She hated the quiet. The only quiet that she'd ever heard be this _still_ was in the aftermath of a crime, and it made her uneasy.

She opened the bedroom door slowly, half unsure what to expect outside. But the house around her bore no signs of being a crime scene nor a battlefield, despite the stillness of the silence that suggested otherwise, and she slowly crept out of the room, down the hall, half expecting something, anything, to pop out and break the silence.

But nothing did, even as she descended the steps to the lower level of the house and almost tiptoed through it to the door. There was nothing there, and there was no sign of Artemis anywhere. She shut down the thought of where he could have been or what he was doing, and instead set to work finding what she needed.

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

About an hour later she found herself on the doorstep of a different villa, this one much more the size and style of what the name had initially implied to her on arrival. She'd found what she needed in the house and a different bike in the garage, and worked her way around the island on it until she found what - and therefore who - she was looking for.

She parked the bike against the side of the house and approached the steps, stopping at the foot and taking a deep breath. She didn't know how to do this, nor what she would even say, but… it seemed a bit late - not to mention wildly counterproductive - to turn back now. She steelled herself, then mounted the steps and knocked a few times on the door before she could lose her nerve.

For a long minute, no one answered. Then, she could have sworn she heard a faint sound from inside before the door swung open.

Riley stood in front of her, his dark chocolate eyes barely open and bleary still with sleep. He looked like he'd barely rolled out of bed to answer the door, and his attire also attested to that - he was wearing nothing but grey pajama pants that hung loose on his hips, revealing the hem of his boxers and the beginning of that dark trail-

She forced her eyes up and away, feeling the blush coloring her cheeks. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize-"

"-that I would still be sleeping at 7 in the morning? Imagine that," he drawled, although his voice held no malice. He rubbed his eyes. "How did you even find me?"

"I have my own sources." He quirked a brow at her, and she relented, "Artemis has a book…"

"Of course he does." Riley smothered a yawn. "Does he know you looked at it?"

"I don't know and I don't care," Holly lied, a bit too quickly. "Anyway, aren't you going to let me in?"

"Are you going to tell me why you're here?"

They stared at each other for a moment. Holly pressed her lips together in a thin line. "I'd rather have that conversation inside," she said finally, her voice quiet.

Riley stared at her for a moment longer before sighing, opening the door for her and stepping back to let her in.

Holly went in slowly, glancing around. The villa obviously wasn't where he lived, nor where anyone did, really; it was equipped with similar furniture to the one her and Artemis were staying in, but not extensively, and it was much smaller, and obviously underused. It was clear no one lived here most of the time.

"Where's your dog?" Riley asked, closing the door and walking right into the kitchen without waiting for her.

She followed him slowly, looking around. "I left him. He was still sleeping."

"I see." He walked over and started the coffee pot. "And why aren't you still sleeping?"

"I…" she stopped, not entirely sure what had woken her up. "I don't know," she admitted, after a moment's thought. "And I didn't realize it was so early, either. I woke up and the sun was up so I just assumed… that it was later, I guess." She didn't mention that in her rush to get out of the house she hadn't bothered to check a clock for the time.

The words seemed to be implied though, as Riley's face darkened a bit as he turned around. "Look, I don't mind you being here, but I don't know what I can help you with. Did he do something to you? Is that why you're here?" When she didn't answer immediately, he pressed, "I can get you out of here, Holly, if you need me to. But I can't openly go against him. And if you're just looking for a rebound, I'm not…" He trailed off when she started a bit and she flushed.

"Of course not! No, I…" she sighed, sitting down at the table. "It's not like that at all. I love him, Riley, and nothing is going to change that. Not even if he hurt me - which he didn't, by the way, not with anything more than words. I just…" she stopped, chewing her lip. "I don't know if I can trust him. I don't know how much of what he told me was true. I just wanted somebody to talk to… to be able to ask without them running back to him about it."

Riley rubbed his jaw, regarding her for a moment in silence. "I… look, you know as well as I do, he doesn't trust me that much. But, that being said…" He met her eyes. "What I know is the same as what you know. And as what everyone else does, from what I can gather."

"So he doesn't believe I'm still feeding information to the LEP and brought me here as collateral?" It sounded so stupid even still, saying it out loud, but she couldn't help the little skip in her chest the thought brought.

Riley sighed a bit, grabbing a mug and turning to the coffee pot again. "If he has any inclination at all that that's what's going on here, he hasn't shared it with anyone else."

She couldn't help the pure _relief_ that swept through her at that simple statement, even as she felt utterly moronic for it. Artemis couldn't be hiding something, not from everyone in his company. He was a good actor, but not that good. He operated with a team, not alone, even if he alone was the brains. It was highly unlikely that he had motives that they hadn't been able to decipher by now. And while she was sure he wouldn't have told Riley, with his extended contact with Mulch and Butler, he would have certainly found out through them by now.

She was a moron. She should have trusted him. Even if he very well had reasons not to trust her, he'd given her no reasons not to trust him. Nor her mother, apparently, but she pushed the thought away. "That's… good to know," she said at last, more to herself than him.

"Can I ask what prompted this sudden questioning into his motives, or is that top secret?" He offered her a cup of coffee, and she took it, getting up to add some creamer to hers. "Did you have a fight?"

"Not exactly, I just…" She sighed, looking down. "Since he'd been gone… it all seemed so surreal. I was starting to question how real it all really was, and then he made a comment like he thought I might have played him to survive, and it made me question… a lot of things." She looked down into her coffee, avoiding his eyes. "It...just...my feelings are a mess," she mumbled.

Riley looked at her and sighed. "Look, as much as it pains me to say it… he cares about you, Holly. A lot. And from what I've seen, at least in these past several months, most of what he's done has been about you. About...well, things I really shouldn't say without his permission."

Holly nodded slowly. "Why don't you like him?" she blurted, unable to help herself. They seemed to have a rivalry, and from what she could see, it was one that was established sometime before she came around - either a very long time ago, or perhaps sometime over the period when she was gone.

Riley sighed, taking a long drink of his coffee before answering. "I… just…" He looked away, barely containing another sigh. "It's complicated. We come from similar but different circumstances, and I think… we both realize that we both have our own loyalties and best interests at heart, not each others'."

"So you'd betray him, is that what you're saying?" Despite her current situation with Artemis, her heart raced a bit at the thought.

Riley seemed to sense it, and he raised his hands in a placating gesture. "No, no. That's not at all what I said. If I wanted him put away, Holly, I could have handed all of them over months ago, and you know that." She did, even if she hadn't thought of it that way before. "I just… we came together because we could benefit from each other. It's a short term thing. I'm not part of this… group that he's built, and that's fine with me. We aren't best friends, and that's also fine with me. It'll just make it easier for us to part paths in the end."

"And when is this "end" supposed to be, exactly?" Holly asked quietly.

Riley just sighed a bit, giving her a look tinged with something between bitterness and sadness. "Whenever he decides he's done with me."

oOoOoOoOoOo

Holly left Riley's house shortly after that. She'd certainly found out what she wanted to know, and he seemed to have run out of things to say for the morning, good or bad. They had finished their coffee in relative silence, and Riley had walked out of the room without so much as a dismissal to her. When she finally finished hers and got up, she got hear the shower running from the bathroom, and decided it was better to leave than to wait until he got out. There wasn't much reason for her to stay anyway.

She took her time getting back to her bike and cruising back to their villa. She needed to see Artemis again - to talk to him, apologize, and just short everything out. He really couldn't afford to have this kind of drama going on in the midst of everything he already had on his plate, and she certainly didn't want to be the source of it, or any other troubles that might be plaguing him for whatever reason. That said, she wasn't in a huge hurry to get back and have this conversation, either. It needed to happen, but she wasn't exactly excited to admit what she'd allowed herself to think, either, even for a short period of time.

She was half-hoping he wasn't there when she arrived, but luck didn't have it that way. She parked her bike and went inside, stopping dead when she opened the door and found him sitting on the couch, staring at something far away and petting Casper absentmindedly as the dog slept on his lap. His eyes immediately snapped into focus at the sound of the door opening, and she froze when he turned his eyes to hers. He rose quickly, pushing Casper onto the couch, but made no move toward her, just staring at her, obviously at a loss for words.

For a long moment, they stared at each other in silence. Finally, very quietly, he murmured, "I'm sorry."

Stunned at the apology, it took her a moment to recover enough to answer. "You're sorry? _Really_?" He opened his mouth to continue, but she talked right over him. "Why on earth are _you_ sorry? _I'm_ the one who should be sorry. I _am_ sorry." She hadn't known how to have this conversation, but faced with him now, his apology, the words just tumbled out. " _I_ am sorry, and _you_ have _no_ reason to be, Artemis. Everything you said was completely reasonable, and I just… I panicked. I panicked at the idea that you didn't trust me, because _I_ trust _you_ , and I trust you implicitly, and for you to not reciprocate, for you to believe in _any way_ that I could have not felt for you what I do… was just crushing. The panic was crushing, and stupid - any thought that you could have done anything to hurt me or anyone I care about or not trust me in any way was just stupid and awful and I'm such an idiot for believing it, and overreacting the way I did. And I always do, and it's never necessary - never _right_ \- and...and I know that now." She stepped up to him, running her hands through his hair and biting her lip. He said nothing, but closed his eyes and inhaled slowly at the gentle touch. "I am sorry," she repeated, even knowing she'd said it so many times already, because it just didn't seem like enough to convey the magnitude of what she felt. "Because I failed you in about every way that counted, Artemis. But you never failed me, and never doubted me, and now I know enough to do the same." Unsure what else to say, especially with his lack of reaction, she just stopped, looking down for a moment and then hugging him tightly.

For a moment, he didn't react. Then he pressed his face into her hair and inhaled deeply, and she felt his arms come up around her, pulling her tightly to him. 'Thank you," he whispered, his voice cracking slightly, and so low that she wouldn't have heard it had his lips not been right by her ear. "And I'm sorry, too, because I still should be, for ever possibly making you feel that way." He kissed her hair, then pulled back slightly. "Do you forgive me?"

She smiled a bit. "Yes, Artemis. I forgive you." She rested her forehead against his. "Do you forgive me?"

Artemis smiled back, cupping her face. "Yes. I forgive you too, Holly."

They stared at each other for a few minutes, not saying anything. Then he kissed her, suddenly, deeply, until they were both had to break apart to breathe, panting heavily and leaning into each other. And then he kissed her again, lifting her up, and then they were moving to the bedroom, Artemis carrying her in and laying her down, kicking the door closed behind them on the dog. There they stayed, wrapped up in each other, for the next several hours, until dinner time.


	15. Chapter 15

**I have little to say for as long as this update took except that four months is technically better than six. Also, part of what's taking so long is that a) I'm getting ready for a move and b) this story is nearing the end segment, and I kind of don't want to write it. Sooo, I'm struggling a bit, and updates will be sporadic. Sorry. But in the meantime, enjoy!**

15.

It was hours later before either of them stirred, and even still they didn't leave the bed, curled up in each other and just laying there. Holly dozed intermittently, her head tucked into his shoulder, and had assumed he was too until she looked up to find him staring at the ceiling with far away eyes again.

Holly nudged him lightly in the ribs, drawing his attention back to her. His eyes refocused suddenly, looking down at her, and she smiled back at him, biting her lip. For a moment, they said nothing, staring at each other, and then she finally asked, "What are you thinking about?"

Artemis just shrugged, brushing a strand of her hair out of her face. "A million things," he said, quietly enough that she knew he was trying to cover the weariness in his voice. "What are you thinking about?"

Holly shrugged too. "Same, although I'm sure my thoughts weigh a lot less than yours."

He chuckled. "They aren't even on the same scale of measurement, so we can't exactly compare them, but I'm sure they're just as heavy on you as mine are on me." He paused. "But, on a serious note… I don't want to have a problem like this again. From now on, we need to communicate better. If you want to know something, ask me. Talk to me." And trust him not to lie to her, was the part he didn't have to add.

She thought about it for a moment. She didn't have anymore burning questions for him, really, not in the light of recent revelations. Except… "When did you talk to my mother?" she blurted, unable to quench the desire to know despite herself.

Artemis chuckled, sitting up and running his hands through his hair. "Sometimes you just have to take a gamble, and that's what I did. The likelihood of your home being near impenetrable - at least in the sense of me being able to get in and out undetected - was incredibly high. A bank or a vault that no one knows the intricacies of," he added, noting the look on her face before she could ask the question that immediately popped into her head, "Is easy to tamper with slightly and no one notice. For me to have gotten in to where he lives every day… assuming I could get in without resorting to breaking the lock, if I had so much as moved a coffee cup out of place, he'd have noticed it. Besides, I… couldn't fathom leaving a trace and making him feel unsafe in his own home," he admitted heavily. "And after meeting you, and from what I'd gathered… I knew what my best solution was, so I took a risk," he repeated, shrugging his shoulders a bit.

Holly raised an eyebrow. "So… you met her… how?"

"I walked up and knocked on the front door."

Her jaw dropped open a bit. "What? That's insane! How did you know Dad wasn't there?"

Artemis shrugged again. "Please. He was practically sleeping at the station at that point, even if he wasn't in France with you at the time. Anyway, it was the most logical choice. I needed her help, and I needed her to trust me. Brute force or intimidation wasn't going to work, and I can hardly stomach that when it's not absolutely necessary anyway." He stopped, raising an eyebrow down at her. "How did you even know about this?"

Holly shrugged. "She said something on the phone…. That indicated that she'd met you. I was just curious as to when." She didn't want to specify more than that, even knowing that he'd heard most of the conversation with her.

"I went and knocked on the door. I had your bag on my shoulder, Casper tucked into my jacket…" He shrugged and looked away, his eyes taking a far off look she knew too well. "She answered the door, took one look at me, and… well, if I didn't know that I'd kept my face carefully hidden before meeting you, I'd think she'd have seen a picture of me. She let me in before scolding me like a child, at least." He couldn't keep the ghost of a smile from his lips.

She smiled. "And then?"

"And then she asked me what was going on. Where you were, if you were okay. I told her what happened. After revealing myself, there wasn't much point in holding anything back." He exhaled a bit. "I asked her about Casper. If she didn't think he could have stayed, I'd have taken him with me."

She frowned, punching him lightly in the ribs. "You promised you'd leave him for me!"

"I did, didn't I? I just wanted to make sure your father wasn't going to come back and shoot him afterwards." He leaned back against the headboard, tucking a pillow behind him to lean on. "She assured me she'd deal with him if he so much as tried. I didn't get to stay long, but we talked for a few minutes. I took your stuff up to your room and was gone within an hour."

Holly looked up at him. "And wrote me the note?"

"The note was written a bit before I got there. I didn't have time to get emotional at that point. I had to go." He looked back at her for a moment, then sighed, checking his watch. "We should go to dinner. Juliet will either be mad or worried if we don't show, and neither of those do we actually want to deal with."

Holly smiled a bit as he got up and started pulling clothes on. "Surely she can't be that bad."

"Don't test the theory," he warned, and she chuckled, watching him disappear into the bathroom before getting up and starting to get dressed herself.

Shortly after, they had finished and rode on his bike over to the main house for dinner. It was similar to how they had yesterday, but it felt different to her; like somehow tension that she didn't know had been between them - or that they had both been purposely ignoring, most likely - had been dissolved.

It helped that there were no more surprises that night. Everyone was already there, even Riley, and while they got a brief scolding from Juliet for being late, everyone else seemed to notice the absence of former tension, too, and appreciate it as much as she did - between her and Artemis, but between everyone and Riley as well. The shock of his arrival seemed to have worn off, and despite the misgivings he'd expressed that morning, he may as well have been family too.

They had a nice dinner, conversation flowing smoothly between them. Holly chatted with everyone about something at least once, and despite the difference in setting, she felt just as at home there as she had before at the hotel and the Manor.

They left after dark and rode back to their villa, falling asleep soon after despite sleeping a good bit of the afternoon away.

Morning, however, came too soon, and too abruptly, brought on by the sound of Artemis's phone going ballistic beside him. They both jolted awake when it started going off. Once she realized it was just his phone, she tried to lay back down and block out the noise with a pillow over her head, but it didn't quite work out that way.

Artemis grabbed it and answered the call, starting to settle back in bed with the phone by his ear. But what he heard apparently made him change his mind, causing him to sit straight up next to her. "What?" He paused. "Are you sure?" He stopped again to listen, and she heard him heave a sigh next to her and shift away from her. "Alright, alright. I'm on my way now."

She heard the click of the phone disconnecting, and then he was leaning over her. "Holly."

"I'm not awake," she mumbled into the pillows, unwilling to move.

"Fine. You don't have to be, but I have to go." He got up, throwing the blankets off himself and getting up.

Not liking that very much either, she turned over and made a face at him. "Why?" She sounded like a whiny child, and she knew it, but it was too early for her to care.

Artemis sighed, looking torn between being amused and exasperated at her response. "Because my father's random demand just came in, Holly."

"What?" All thoughts of sleep flew out the window, and she bolted upright in the bed. "Are you sure?"

"As sure as I can be until I open the email. Butler doesn't want to open it until I get over there in case it's spiked, but it's from the same people as the original, and there's not much else it could be."

"Oh." She rubbed her eyes again and started to get up. "I'll come with you then."

"No." He stopped her, rubbing his face a bit. "I mean, you can, but… I'll likely be gone for a while, and there'll have to be a meeting, and there's not much you could do, really. It's still early yet. Get a few more hours rest and come find me at a reasonable hour."

A quick glance at the clock confirmed he was telling the truth. Whyever Butler had happened to check the email at 3 in the morning, or why the email had been sent that early, she didn't know, but seeing the time she suddenly decided he was right and sunk back down in the bed. "Yeeeah, I'd be kind of useless anyway," she muttered, settling back down.

Artemis couldn't keep the half-smile from creeping up at her reaction. "You're better for helping me with the aftermath of this, admittedly. Anyway…" he leaned down and kissed her hair, then straightened. "I'll be at the big house if you need anything. You can come find me when you wake up."

"Will do," she murmured, already snuggling back into the covers. She knew enough to know there wasn't much she'd be able to do in this situation, so there wasn't much point in insisting on going with him, even though she was sure he'd let her. It was best to settle in and let one of them be properly rested for what would come next. All the better for her to take care of him that way. She couldn't do much if she was also dead on her feet.

Almost before she heard the door close behind him, she was asleep again.

She slept for a few more hours before getting up for the day. At eight, she finally got up for the day and stumbled in the bathroom to shower. Slowly, more awake afterwards but still feeling weary, she managed to get dressed and find Casper, and they headed over to the main house together.

When she arrived, she found the house eerily silent. There was no sign of Artemis, Butler, Juliet, or any of the boys anywhere. She was just starting to wonder what was going on and where they could be when she managed to find her way back into the kitchen.

There still was no sign of any of the males, but Juliet was at the stove as she entered. The other girl looked up and smiled wearily, and Holly could instantly tell that she'd been up just as long as Artemis had. She just wasn't quite her normal chipper self this morning. So they'd had some kind of meeting, then, but either it was over, or the girl was up for another reason.

"Morning." The other girl yawned. Holly walked over to her.

"Morning… Can I help you with something?" She still wanted to be helpful any way she could, and while Juliet was clearly trying to carry on with her normal duties, she seemed like she could fall asleep standing up.

Juliet shrugged, letting her take the spatula from her hand and flip the pancakes she was making. "Sure. I mean, I'm good - I've been up for longer and done worse on less sleep than this, but I'm not going to argue with you, either." She pulled out a chair and flopped into it behind her.

"I'm sure." Holly added the pancake to an already growing stack on a plate beside the stove and poured in the batter for the next. "How did it go?"

"About as well as you can imagine," Juliet answered. She rubbed her eyes. "We opened it, read it - which was good, having so many pairs of eyes, because it almost immediately self-destructed - and then he called an emergency meeting, which, as you can probably guess… just adjourned not too long ago."

Holly nodded slowly, unsure what to say. "I… see." She flipped the pancake and turned to face her. "So where is everyone?"

"Well, we all kind of dispersed after he ended it. I assume my brother went to try to gather whatever information he can on that email, and likely try to recover it to get a trace on it if possible. It's not very likely, but I'm sure he's trying to. Mulch likely either went to find food or back to bed. I don't know where Riley went, and I… obviously… am here." She sighed, rubbing her face.

"And Artemis…?" Holly prompted, knowing she was tired but still wanting to know.

"Adjourned to his study, I believe. If I had to guess, he's meditating, and probably shouldn't be disturbed." She stood up again.

"When will he be out?" She glanced at the other girl, who shrugged as she started to crack eggs and dump them in a bowl.

"Whenever he's done."

And with that, the girl turned away to make scrambled eggs, and they finished cooking in silence.


End file.
